


We'll Be Coming Back

by bethonie (Formula_Tea)



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: AU, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, M/M, Robbery, Scams, black mail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-27
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 05:41:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 39,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2681168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Formula_Tea/pseuds/bethonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Felipe and Rob stopped working for Lewis, they set up a new life for themselves somewhere they couldn't be found, doing what they do best: scams and robbery. Now, when they're close to closing in on their latest hit, their families are in danger, and things start to collapse around them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Robbery

**Author's Note:**

> The rating might change to mature depending on how shit goes.  
> Some of the warnings might change too.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think. :)

The alarm’s been going off for half a minute now. If he isn’t out in five seconds, Felipe needs to leave. That’s the rules. But the five seconds pass, and Felipe’s still sat there, engine on, watching the door and waiting for Rob to make his escape. Another five seconds, and Felipe’s stopped even caring about the money, because what is Rob doing in there? What’s taking him so long? He needs to leave. If he stays any longer, they’ll both be caught. But he can’t leave. He knows he’ll never leave.

Suddenly, the door flies open and Rob bursts out, black bag in hand. Felipe can’t tell if it’s full or empty, but none of that actually matters. The car’s moving before Rob can even shut the door and then they’re racing off. The road at the end of the alley way, glowing under the street lights, is fairly empty, until the squadron of cars chasing them emerge and then it feels like there’s barely enough space to breathe.

Rob doesn’t say anything as they make their escape, still a little in awe after all this time in the confidence Felipe has in his own driving ability. There are some risky moves, especially when there are other people out on the road, most of whom haven’t done anything more exciting than cut across lanes on the round abouts, but there are never any accidents.

Until there is one, Rob thinks, but he pushes the thought away.

The sound of the engine and the rushing of his blood through his head fills Rob’s world. He can see the cars in the mirrors, falling behind as they fail to slip between the traffic as Felipe does.

Before long, their pursuers are swinging onto a road just as they’re swinging off of it. A few more streets later, and they’re out of sight from the cars chasing them. Felipe knows this city like the back of his hand by now, and pulls sharply into one of the many alleyways that the city has to offer. With the engine and the headlights off, they’re thrown into darkness.

The sound of heavy breathing fills the air and it always makes Rob laugh a little. He finds Felipe’s hand in the darkness and squeezes it, trying to calm them both down. They’re safe now. Behind them, one of the cars roars past, oblivious to the hiding space. A second later, the rest do. Then they’re thrown into silence once more and Rob laughs again, switching on the small light in the car.

“What happened?” Felipe asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Alarms had been going off for forty seconds Rob,” Felipe says, trying to sound angry, but all he can manage is relieved. “ _Forty_ seconds. Thought I had lost you.”

“I had a… bit of an issue,” Rob said, quietly, his face going bright pink.

“Bit of an issue… how?” Felipe asks, slowly.

Rob’s eyes drop to the floor, his face reddening by the second. “Security measures we didn’t have on the plan.”

“What security measures?” Felipe asked, cocking his head to try to get a better look at Rob’s face.

“It was dogs alright?” Rob snaps, turning away to look out of the window.

Felipe looks concerned for a moment, then his face bursts into a grin and he has to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing. Rob sees it all in the window.

“It’s not funny,” he says, even though he knows it is and this is why he didn’t want to tell him in the first place. “Could have chewed my leg off. It very nearly did.”

“Dogs,” Felipe says, followed by a small giggle he’s unable to keep in. “The cute little furry things that chase sticks?”

“They were not cute, or furry, or little,” Rob snaps.

“Am sorry,” Felipe says. “Just imagining the headlines if we are caught because of dogs.”

“Yes, ok,” Rob says.

Felipe sighs, rubbing his cheeks to try to stop himself from grinning. “Do not do that to me again, though,” he says, seriously. “Was worried.”

“Sorry,” Rob says quietly. He cups Felipe’s face in his hands and leans over to kiss him. Their lips have barely met before Felipe’s laughing again. Rob groans and falls back into his own chair, his eyes closed. He’s never going to hear the end of this.

“Sorry,” Felipe says again. “But _dogs_.”

“Yes,” Rob says, trying to sound bored. “Dogs.”

“Imagine, though,” Felipe says. “After everything, they catch us, and it is because of dogs.”

“I’d like to see you in there with them,” Rob says, nodding back the way they’d come. “They were probably bigger than you.”

“If it were me in there we would not have gotten away,” Felipe says.

“I would,” Rob says. “If it had taken you forty seconds after the alarm went off, I would have gone without you.”

“Would not,” Felipe says, his bottom lip sticking out.

It’s Rob’s turn to smirk. “I’m going to kiss you now and you’ve got to promise not to laugh.”

Felipe sighs, but nods. “I promise.”

 

The next morning.

Even without opening his eyes, Rob can tell whose phone it is vibrating on the bedside table. The man in his arms rolls over to check the message and, even without opening his eyes, Rob knows who the message is from.

“It’s your day off,” Rob complains, pulling Felipe back into the bed. “He’s not dragging you into work.”

“Do not even know it’s him,” Felipe says, and Rob _knows_ he’s answering the text.

“Who is it then?” he asks.

“Well, _is_ him, but you did not know it,” Felipe says.

“What does he want?” Rob asks, getting ready to come up with arguments as to why Felipe couldn’t go in to work on his day off.

“Got engaged to Mark last night,” Felipe says.

“Engaged,” Rob says, slowly opening his eyes to look at Felipe. The smaller man has his back to him, answering the message his boss has sent him. Rob gently presses kisses all the way up Felipe’s spine until he can rest his head against the younger man’s. “We should get engaged,” he says, quietly.

“Hmmm,” Felipe agrees, rolling over. “But you are already married.”

“So are you,” Rob reminds him.

“Yes,” Felipe says. “And we both love them very much.”

It’s the same mantra they’ve been telling themselves for months. Sometimes, when it’s just the two of them, it’s hard to remember what they’ve left behind.

“I love you,” Rob says, quietly, brushing Felipe’s hair from out of his face.

“And I love you too,” Felipe says, kissing the end of Rob’s nose before quickly returning to the texting.

“What are you writing? A sonnet?”

“A what?” Felipe asks, his thumbs still moving even when he’s not looking at the phone.

“Nothing,” Rob says. He does not feel any great desire to explain what a sonnet is. “What’s with the long reply? Just say congratulations and leave it at that.”

“Fernando has invited me out for drinks tonight to celebrate,” Felipe says. His tongue sticks out when he’s concentrating on the message and if Rob wasn’t annoyed he’d be laughing.

“What are you writing?” he asks. Felipe can’t come up with excuses to save his life.

“Asking where and when,” Felipe says.

“You’re _going_ ,” Rob says.

“Is my friend,” Felipe says.

“Is your idiot boss who does nothing but use you,” Rob corrects him.

“Are playing with him for lots and lots of money,” Felipe reminds him. “Need to keep things sweet.”

Rob rolls his eyes, but he knows Felipe’s right. They’ve been working on Alonso for months and they’re too close to pulling this off to let him get suspicious. Felipe works close with him, when he bothers to show up. It was inevitable they would end up classing one another as “friends”.

“Rather you than me,” Rob says.

“What?” Felipe asks. “You are coming too.”

“No. Way.”

He’s nothing against Fernando, besides the fact he doesn’t understand that sometimes his employees need to be doing something that _isn’t_ working, and he’s nothing against his boyfriend, Mark. But together…

“Have invited you along too,” Felipe says.

“Tell them I’m working,” Rob says.

Public displays of affection are one thing, but constant displays of affection that are verging on the material of porn…

“Have already said you are coming,” Felipe says. “Are not letting me suffer on my own.”

Rob plucks the phone from Felipe’s hand, but the message saying he would come has already been sent. He leans over and places the phone on the bed side table. It vibrates again and Felipe reaches over for it but Rob takes his hands.

“No. He has already had you for long enough today. It’s your day off and we are enjoying it.”

He catches Felipe’s lips in his before he can answer. Felipe doesn’t try to reach for the phone again.


	2. Drinks

Rob’s sitting on the bed, flicking through documents for work and listening to Felipe chat away in Portuguese on the computer. He’s still no idea what he talks about, but he always sounds happy, and that’s good enough for Rob. They’re both still married. They both have kids. They both have families they left behind when they came here, but neither one of them stopped caring. When they left, they were keeping everyone safe and when things are safe again, they’ll go back.

“Eu te amo,” Felipe’s wife says, and Rob can hear the sadness in her voice. He knows what that means. And she knows the situation. She’s never been told it, as far as Rob knows, but she knows what’s going on.

Felipe sighs. “Eu te amo.”

And he does. Rob _knows_ he does. He doesn’t feel the pang of jealously when Felipe says that, because Felipe’s here with him and he knows he’s got to share, as does Felipe. But Rob got the much more preferable option to Raffaela, to the woman Felipe was married to. He didn’t really have the right to feel jealous because of three simple words.

Felipe disconnects the video call a couple of minutes later and Rob pretends to be busy looking at bank statements but he’s not fooling anyone. Felipe falls onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling and is silent for a couple of moments. Rob looks down at him and smiles weakly, then goes back to organizing the paper work.

“You should get changed,” he says. “We should get going soon. You know Fernando will moan if you’re too late.”

“Hmmm,” Felipe says, but he doesn’t move.

Rob leans over him, blocking his view of the ceiling, but Felipe’s eyes don’t move.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Rob says.

“Know this,” Felipe says, quietly. “Am still hurting her though.”

He’s like this after every video chat and Rob sometimes wonders why he still has them, but he doesn’t blame him. Not really.

“We’re nearly finished with Alonso,” Rob says, switching to second names when he was a target. “Then we can go back for a little while.”

He smiles as if that might cheer him up.

“Hmmm,” Felipe says again.

“Come on,” Rob says, slapping his arm. “Up and dressed for drinks. We’re not going to get anything done lying in bed all day.”

“That’s not what you said earlier,” Felipe says, and there’s the faintest hint of a smile on his face.

Rob takes a bundle of papers and taps Felipe on the head with them, bringing the smile back properly. “Would you like some help getting dressed?”

Felipe pushes himself up so he’s sitting, then falls back onto the bed. “Maybe a little.”

 

Fernando and Mark are already there when they arrive. They’ve taken charge of one of the booths and are sat with another two guys. By the time Felipe and Rob make their way over, they already seem a little drunk.

“Rob!” Mark calls as they get close enough to the booth so that they don’t need to shout. He does anyway. “You know about money and shit, don’t you?”

He’s waving his drink about, but he’s drank enough so that it doesn’t slop over the edges.

“Yeah,” Rob says, slowly. There’s no getting out of this. He’s set himself up as a financial advisor whilst they’re staying here. So far, it’s going pretty well.

“Shush!” Fernando hisses. “Do not need your help, Rob. Is fine. We do not need…”

“Tell Nando it’s safer to have our money in a joint account,” Mark says.

Felipe grins as he slides into the booth beside Fernando, pulling Rob in with him. Of course Rob manages to sit himself on the end, Felipe thinks. Easy escape.

“Well,” Rob says. “I’m not working right now.”

“But you could make an appointment,” Felipe suggests. “Then you can go over everything properly and you have him to yourself for a whole hour.”

And there’s no way he can turn them away.

Rob glares at him.

“That would be good,” Mark says.

“We do not need…”

“Let him tell us what we need,” Mark says.

Rob groans quietly. It’s going to be a long night.

Neither Rob nor Felipe drink, mostly because they’ve found Felipe’s a lightweight and Rob needs to be sober to cope with that in case anything happens. They drink their soft drinks whilst Mark and Fernando get more and more drunk, their friends not drinking quite as much but laughing at the displays of affection that make Rob cringe.

“So,” Felipe says. “Getting married?”

“Well, it feels like the right thing to do,” Mark says. “We love each other and we want to spend the rest of our lives together.”

“Have a time of year in mind?” Felipe asks, and Rob genuinely can’t tell if he’s really interested or playing his part.

“Well,” Fernando says. He and Mark look at one another and grin. “Have already set a date.”

“Really?” one of the friends asks. “Come on, let me get my diary out.”

“Next Tuesday,” Fernando says.

Rob spits his drink back into his glass and Felipe’s mouth falls open. They don’t even look over to the other side of the booth but they’re pretty sure the other two men there are as surprised as they are.

“Next… Tuesday,” Felipe says, slowly.

“Why not?” Mark asks, pulling Fernando closer. “We’re in love. Why wait?”

“How did you find somewhere that’ll do it so soon?” one of the friends asks.

“There was a cancelation or something,” Fernando says. “Does not matter.”

“We’re not doing the big white wedding thing,” Mark says. “Doesn’t seem appropriate. We’d like it if you two,” He points to the two friends. “Could be witnesses.”

The look of relief on Rob’s face is priceless, but Mark and Fernando both miss it waiting for a reply from their friends.

“We should get going,” Felipe says. “Will take it you will not be at work on Tuesday, then.”

“Nope,” Mark says, happily. “He’s going to be a little busy.”

“Right,” Rob says slowly, standing and pulling Felipe out of the booth behind him. “Have a good night. Congratulations.”

“We’ll call around soon to get a meeting,” Mark promises.

Felipe feels the hand around his tighten and he has to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing.

“Yeah,” Rob says, slowly. “I’ll see you then.”

 

“Next Tuesday,” Felipe says as they arrive back at the house. He doesn’t quite believe it. He’s known Mark’s been planning on asking for a while. It’s been pretty obvious. But he didn’t think Fernando would agree to do anything that quickly. “Is not going to be any problem for us, is it?”

“I’m not talking to you,” Rob says, pulling off his coat.

“Aw, why not?” Felipe laughs, as if he doesn’t know why not.

“ _You_ are evil,” Rob declares.

Felipe knows Rob can’t stand the pair of them together. He’s done a pretty good job of avoiding them as much as possible since Felipe started working for Fernando, but there’s no way he can see of getting out of this.

“Of course,” Felipe says, wrapping his arms around Rob’s neck and lifting himself up onto his toes. “Getting Mark to come to you, with all the information on their bank accounts you could possibly want, ready to listen to any suggestions that you have. Am very, very evil.”

It takes a couple of seconds for Rob to realise why Felipe’s grinning up at him, then he can’t believe he hasn’t thought of this himself.

“Very evil,” he agrees, leaning down to close the couple of inches between them. “This is why I love you.”

“Is the only reason?” Felipe inquires, still on the tips of his toes.

“Oh, I think I could come up with a couple of others.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Portuguese from Bing translate, so if it's bad/wrong, let me know and I'll correct it.


	3. The Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What you don't realise is that this is actually the story about why the boiler in my house wasn't fixed for weeks on end. The story has nothing to do with anything else. Just the boiler.

When Fernando arrives at work the next day, he isn’t as hung over as Felipe expects him to be. Fernando owns and rents a large amount of houses in the area and it is Felipe’s job to “assist” Fernando in the co-ordination of the care and maintenance of those houses, which really turned out to mean that Felipe organises the routine checkups and finding the workmen for if something goes wrong, which it very often does, whilst Fernando occupied his time with games of solitaire.

Felipe’s sorting out another complaint about the boiler from 16 Lnysid Road when Fernando comes in, as cheerful as ever, a little later than socially acceptable but that’s nothing new for the Spaniard.

“Good morning.”

“You see happy,” Felipe observes as Fernando makes his way through their small office and into the break area in the back to put away his coat and make coffee.

“The most amazing man in the world wants to marry me, Felipe, why would I not be happy,” Fernando calls in from the other room.

Felipe smiles down at his keyboard and tries to remember what it was he was typing before Fernando’s arrival.

“Your head is ok?” Felipe inquires. He’s pretty sure the Spaniard should have a hang over after the amount he drank the night before, but he seems perfectly fine.

“Never better,” Fernando declares. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah,” Felipe says. He’s going to ask anyway.

“What was it like when you got married?” Fernando calls through, still in the other room.

Felipe’s quiet for a moment, his thumb spinning the wedding ring on his finger around. Fernando doesn’t know about his old life. Nobody does, except Rob. They’re pretty sure Fernando just assumes they’re married, which is fine by them as it answers most questions and suggests there is no old life at all.

But there is.

“It was good,” Felipe says. “One of the happiest days of my life.”

“Do you think we are doing this too quickly?” Fernando asks, returning with coffee in hand. He sits behind his desk and taps at the keyboard to get the computer started before remembering he has to turn the computer on. “Mark wants to get this done as soon as possible and I don’t see why not, but people do not do things this quickly and am worried we are missing something.”

Felipe shrugs and pretends to look over the work. “Is your choice. Only reason we had a long time between proposing and the wedding was because we had lots of people to invite and we could not get a venue. But if you are only doing a small thing.”

“I do not want a big deal,” Fernando insists. “Is about me and Mark. Do not need all the rest.”

“If this is what you want, does not matter what anybody else does,” Felipe says.

“Of course this is what I want,” Fernando says, a little too insistently. “More than anything in the world.”

Felipe shrugs and finishes the email he had been busy writing before Fernando came in.

“Am glad you are happy,” he says.

Happy people are easier to play.

 

Rob looks down at the collection he made two nights ago. The bag has been sat in the bottom of the wardrobe but now it’s on the bed, the contents displayed in the private room. Jewels. Not a lot by Rob and Felipe’s standards, but enough to give them enough to make an escape with if that’s needed. And enough to keep their families without want.

The robbery was on the news the day before, but Rob hadn’t been paying attention. Now he has one of the articles up on the laptop, telling him exactly how much their night had been worth. They’re too hot at the moment, he knows, but he already has someone in mind who’ll be able to take these off his hands. He’ll leave it the standard two weeks before he goes to see the fence.

There’s a knock at the door and Rob scrambles to put their treasure back where he’d found it before answering the door. He doesn’t have any appointments today and they don’t often get visitors, not having any real friends around here. His first thought is the police, as is his second, and he’s trying to keep himself calm as he rushes to answer the door.

“Hi,” he says. “You’re not with a client, are you?”

“No,” Rob says. He doesn’t offer to let Mark in, not wanting this to take any longer than necessary. He’s not with a client, but he does have things to be doing.

“Great,” Mark says. “I was wondering if I could speak to you, in private, before I bring Fernando along.”

“Sure,” Rob says, forcing a smile onto his face. He stands aside to let Mark in, knowing this isn’t going to end anytime soon. “What do you need to talk about?”

“Do you think it’s a good idea?” Mark asks. “I’ve been trying to convince Fernando for months, but he’s still not sure.”

“Well, I’d have to have a look at the bank accounts and the details and stuff,” Rob says, wondering how much he’ll be able to get away with. “Tea?”

“No thanks,” Mark says.

Rob stumbles a little on his way through to make tea, not expecting the offer to be declined. Without waiting to be told, Mark takes a seat on one of the sofas, not noticing the sudden panic Rob’s got himself into. He has a routine, and Mark’s thrown that off already.

“What would you need?” Mark asks, looking up.

“I really wouldn’t know until I’ve spoken to both of you, together,” Rob says, trying to bide his time. “I’d need to know what the situation is like from both perspectives, then what goes in and out, the usual…”

“I just think it would be a lot safer,” Mark says. “I mean, everyone knows Nando has a lot of money. He doesn’t exactly hide it. And I love every bit of him, but I don’t think it’s very safe. A shared bank account would be safer, wouldn’t it?”

My bank account would be safest, Rob thinks.

“Possibly,” he says.

“I think Fernando just likes to be in control, you know,” Mark says. “Doesn’t want to admit that maybe I know best. But, what can you do with them?”

“Them?” Rob asks.

“Ah, don’t tell me your Felipe isn’t like that,” Mark says, grinning. “But we love them, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Rob’s not really sure he can agree with that, but he doesn’t want to get into a conversation Mark outside this given topic of money when he has other things to be doing, so doesn’t say anything.

“What is it you do again, Mark?” Rob asks, trying to bring them back to safer ground.

“I’m a waiter,” Mark says. “Yeah, it’s not the most extravagant thing in the world, I know, but the pay is pretty good and I enjoy it. Besides, you know, rude customers.”

Rob nods. He’s waited tables before and knows exactly what Mark’s talking about. At least there you can simply leave, though. When you work in your own home, getting away from customers is a little more difficult.

“I have a client in about fifteen minutes I should be getting ready for,” Rob lies, unable to shake the feeling that Mark is going to leave of his own accord anytime soon. “Would you like to make an appointment?”

“Yes, sure,” Mark says.

Still not entirely sure if this is going to be worth it, Rob goes into the study to fetch his diary.


	4. The email

The phone starts ringing as Rob is showing Mark out and he has to run to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Rob?”

“Lucy?”

Rob’s surprised to hear her voice, but isn’t disappointed. He falls into the chair besides the landline, a smile naturally falling on his face. Whilst Felipe speaks to his family at least once a week, Rob does so less often.

“Yeah,” Lucy says. “Just calling to let you know we had a break in last night.”

“A break in?” The smile that has fallen on Rob’s face is gone and he’s sat up. “Are you ok? Are the kids ok?”

“Everyone’s fine,” Lucy insists. “They came in the night, took the stuff, and left. We didn’t even know about it until the morning after. We’ve had the police and insurance people around all morning trying to get it all sorted out. I would have phoned sooner, but I didn’t want to whilst they were here.”

“Of course,” Rob says. “Just glad to know you’re ok. How are the kids taking it?”

“Not so well,” Lucy says. “They took the games consoles and the computer so the kids aren’t very impressed.”

“I can imagine,” Rob says. “But you’ve sorted things out with the insurance? You’ll get the stuff back.”

“Yeah,” Lucy says. “It’ll be a couple of weeks, they said, but our claim seems fine to the people who came around, apparently. You can see where they forced their way in, so it’s not as if we were being careless or anything. It’s not like we would…”

No. They both knew how important the security was. And if their old boss ever found out where their families were hiding, that security would be even more important.

“As long as you’re safe, that’s all that matters,” Rob insists. “And Raffaela is alright too?”

Felipe will only inquire when Rob tells him. It’s best to make sure.

“Yes, Rob, we are all safe and well,” Lucy insists. “Look, I need to go. The police said they would send someone around later.”

“You don’t need to tidy up for them, Lucy,” Rob reminds her, knowing her well enough to know what’s running through her mind.

“I was just going to bring the vacuum through.”

“They’re not going to care if the house is a mess,” Rob says.

“Maybe,” Lucy says. “But maybe there’s a nice looking policeman I’m trying to impress.”

“Playing cops and robbers again?” Rob asks, trying to keep the laughter from his voice.

“Would be nice to be the robber for once,” Lucy says.

“So now you have a problem with my career path,” Rob says.

Lucy giggles but, before she can comment, there’s a knock on the door.

“Is that him?” Rob asks.

“Might be,” Lucy says. “I’ll phone later, ok? Bye.”

 

Somehow, and Rob really doesn’t know how, Felipe’s always happy when he comes home from work. Rob’s pretty sure he’s not a real human being, or his emotions don’t function like a real human’s do anyway. The smile on his face is enough to cheer Rob up, anyway, and he doesn’t complain when the younger man carelessly throws his coat over the back of a chair and falls onto the sofa beside Rob. Rob looks up from the paperwork to see Felipe peering at it, but he’s pretty sure the Brazilian has no idea what most of it’s about.

“So,” Felipe says slowly. “How was your day?”

“If you’re inquiring as to whether or not the Australian marrying our hit called around, yes he did,” Rob says, putting the papers away because there’s little chance he’s going to be able to focus on work now.

“And?”

“Did you know he’s a waiter?” Rob asked. “I don’t know where he works, but I can’t imagine he earns that much. Not compared to Alonso. Alonso who he wants to set up a joint bank account with. Seem odd to you?”

“Not really?” Felipe says.

Rob rolls his eyes. He should have known he was going to have to spell this out.

“I think Mark’s marrying Fernando for money,” Rob says. “And the joint account is some back up plan. Or the other way around.”

Felipe stares blankly at him for a moment, and Rob waits for him to catch up. There’s a chance he’s just reading too much into it, but his theory seems pretty good to him.

“Fernando loves Mark,” Felipe says, slowly. “Should have seen him today. Is so happy.”

“I don’t really think Mark cares much about that, mate,” Rob says. “I don’t know. I might be wrong. It might be me trying to make everyone else to be as bad as we are.”

“Are not _bad_ ,” Felipe complains, pouting a little.

Rob rolls his eyes and grins. “I can think of a few people who would disagree with you there. Fernando being one of them, if he knew what we were really up to.”

“Yes, but they are not so good themselves, remember,” Felipe points out. “But… you really think this about Mark? Am sure they are in love.”

“Are sure they act like they’re in love,” Rob says. “I think Mark’s a gold digger. As if Fernando isn’t going to have enough problems when we finish with him.”

“Is this a problem?” Felipe asks. “For us, I mean?”

“I don’t think so,” Rob says. “I mean, how quickly can he work?”

“Are getting married pretty quickly,” Felipe says.

“Yes, but for Mark to get anything out of that, it would have to be Fernando’s fault the marriage splits up,” Rob explains. “And I don’t see that happening anytime soon. We’ll be fine, sunshine. Don’t worry.”

 

For all the bad things Rob’s done – the robbery and the like – he takes his work very seriously, and is busy working out a plan like he has promised one of his clients when the email comes through.

It’s sent to his work address, but he doesn’t recognize the sender’s email, which is a little unusual. Not unusual to cause suspicion though, and he opens the email without much of a second thought.

There’s only a single line of text and a video attachment.

_My money at my place in two weeks and nobody gets hurt. Hamilton._

Rob glances back into the kitchen where Felipe is cooking, considers calling him in before he watches the attachment but decides against it. Still trying to come up with a way this can possibly be not as bad as it seems, Rob presses play.

The video isamateur, following someone into a house Rob recognises. The lights are all off, but shapes can be made out and, the longer the camera is in the dark, the clearer the image is. The camera pans around a messy play room, the drawings that have been stuck to the wall familiar. The camera man takes them on a tour of the bottom floor of the house and, the more Rob watches, the sicker he feels. By the end of the tour there’s no doubting where they are. He should have known when Lucy phoned something was wrong.

The video goes on, up the stairs. He switches off the video before the camera man can go into any of the rooms, scared what he’ll see.

The email is still open on the computer screen.

_My money at my place in two weeks and nobody gets hurt. Hamilton._

He’s found them. And they are in deep trouble.


	5. The Bedtime Talk

“Are you alright?” Felipe asks as they lie in bed. Rob’s been tossing and turning for the best part of an hour when he normally drops off as soon as he decides he’s going to sleep.

“I’m fine,” Rob says, rolling onto his side, away from Felipe.

“For sure?” Felipe asks.

“Yes,” Rob insists. He knows he’s going to need to tell Felipe about the email at some point. They are his family too, after all. But something is stopping him. He doesn’t know what. It’s as if, if he doesn’t tell him, he might be able to solve this problem by himself and never have to make Felipe experience the panic and guilt he was feeling right now. But he knew that wasn’t possible.

He can feel Felipe’s hands on his back, sliding up to his shoulders. They pull Rob onto his back and he’s left staring grumpily at the ceiling. Felipe sits up on his knees and looks down at him.

“What is wrong?” he asks.

“Nothing,” Rob insists, but the harder he tries to insist, the more Felipe can tell he’s lying. “I just want to go to sleep.”

Felipe disappears from sight and, for a moment, Rob thinks he might be left alone. Then the weight on the bed lifts and the light flicks on.

No, he was not getting out of this.

Felipe sat on the bed, crossing his legs like a school child, and looked down at Rob.

“Talk.”

“Felipe, let me sleep.”

“Were not sleeping,” Felipe says. “Were tossing around and making it so I could not sleep either. Something is wrong. Tell me.”

Rob sighs and sits up, pushing his back against the wall the bed lies against. It’s cold and feels nice. His eyes travel slowly from the ceiling to the floor, trying to find the right words in the room because, as soon as he tells Felipe, their whole world will shatter. Whilst it’s in his head, he can pretend it’s not true. If he hasn’t spoken about it, he can pretend it hasn’t happened.

“I got an email,” Rob says slowly.

He glances over to see Felipe’s reaction and is met by the most perplexed look he has ever seen. It almost makes him smile. There he is again, making Rob smile when he really shouldn’t be smiling.

“An email,” Felipe says slowly, because he’s pretty sure he’s missing something important. “From a client?”

“It wasn’t from a client,” Rob says, quietly. “It’s probably best if I show you.”

He gets out of bed and gets the laptop from the other room. When he returns, Felipe is back under the covers, still confused. Rob quickly brings up the email and watches as the confusion falls from Felipe’s face to be replaced by something akin to horror.

_My money at my place in two weeks and nobody gets hurt. Hamilton._

“How… he cannot have… Is just doing our bluff.”

“I don’t think he is,” Rob says, quietly. The mouse hovers over the video and he really doesn’t want to press play. He really doesn’t want to prove that tiny bit of hope Felipe has is false.

“What is that?” Felipe asks, pointing to the attachment.

“It’s a video he sent with it,” Rob explains.

“Have watched the video?” Felipe asks.

Rob nods.

“Play it,” Felipe requests. He moves closer to Rob so he can see the screen better and Rob can feel him shaking beside him. He presses play and they watch again as the intruder wonders around their families’ home. Rob tears his eyes off of the screen to watch Felipe.

Rob’s waiting for him to say it. Waiting for Felipe to say “I told you so”. Because he had. He’d known all along that something like this would happen and, as hard as Rob has tried to prove him wrong, he’s right.

When Rob looks back at the video he finds himself watching one of his sons sleep for the first time in months. He knew he shouldn’t have carried on watching the video. Hamilton would have known Rob would be the one to see it first.

“He’s in their house, Rob,” Felipe whispers, closing the video when he feels Rob go stiff beside him. “Have you told them?”

Rob shakes his head. “I did _try_. Their phone is out.”

And by out, Rob’s pretty sure it’s been wired, or whatever the right word for it is. He’s listening to the phones, stopping them making the call. He’s done it before.

Rob knows what else has been done before too.

“The computer,” Felipe says.

“Has been stolen,” Rob finishes. “Lucy phoned earlier to tell me. Before I got this. They had a break in last night. This, probably. They took the computer and some of the kids’ games. They thought all this through, Felipe. We can’t contact them.”

“Then what do we do?” Felipe asks. “Do not have all of his money. Cannot have it by two weeks.”

Rob knows this. He’s been trying to come up with a plan since he got the email, but there’s nothing he can think of.

“Even if we did have the money, I’m not going back to him,” Rob says. “I’m not letting _you_ go back to him.”

Because that’s what this is. If Hamilton just wanted the money, he would come and take it from them. He wants _them_. And, after everything that happened, Rob is not letting Felipe work for him again.

“Cannot let them get hurt.”

“I know,” Rob says. “But there’s got to be another way.”

There isn’t. He knows there isn’t.

“Were not even going to tell me?” Felipe says, quietly.

“No,” Rob says. “I was, but not yet. I was trying to come up with a plan.”

“And what have you come up with so far?” Felipe snaps.

He pushes the covers off of himself and climbs out of the bed. When Rob grabs his hand, he pulls it away.

“Where are you going?”

“Am going to get some coffee,” Felipe says. “Then we are going to sort this out.”

Rob watches him go, pulling the laptop onto his own lap and reopening the video to watch the end alone.

His son.

One of the two things he is supposed to look after more than anything else in the world, the other being his second son who was sleeping just on the other side of the wall filmed. He’s supposed to be looking after them, but he can’t.

He can’t even warn them what’s going on. He very highly doubts he’ll be allowed to go and see them, even if that was geographically possible. The only ways he can think of to stop them being hurt is to give the man his money or to get them out of there. The former idea makes him feel physically sick and the latter seems impossible on their own.

Felipe returns with coffee for them both just as Rob gets an idea. Felipe sits down on the edge of the bed, handing the coffee to Rob without saying a word and Rob thinks through his idea. He doesn’t want to give any false hope. He also doesn’t want to look like an idiot.

But this looks like it’s actually going to work. They might actually have a way out of this.

“Felipe?”

“Am not angry,” Felipe says, quietly. “Just disappointed. Do not need protecting all of the time, you know?”

“I’ve an idea,” Rob says.

“Just need to give him the money, Rob,” Felipe says. “Have the jewels from the other day. For sure, they must be worth enough?”

“I’m not going back to working for him and neither are you,” Rob says. “I have an idea.”

Felipe says nothing, looking down at the coffee he hasn’t touched yet. Rob takes this as a sign to continue and hopes Felipe is listening.

“The French.”


	6. The Phone Call

They wait until morning to phone. There are no specific office hours - it’s not that kind of company - but Rob’s sure he’ll be able to negotiate the job a lot better after he’s had some sleep. Not that he sleeps much at all. He keeps the tossing and turning to a minimum, trying not to keep Felipe awake too, but in the morning it’s clear none of them have had a proper night’s rest.

He sits on the edge of the bed with his mobile in hand, watching Felipe get ready for work as he builds the courage to make the phone call. Whatever’s happening, it can’t be a bad thing to have the job with Alonso on standby, and they cannot risk him getting suspicious.

“Will call me once you’ve spoken to them?” Felipe asks when it’s clear Rob’s waiting until after he’s left to make the call.

“Of course,” Rob says. He’s almost certain they won’t say no. Their loyalties lie to money and, when he’s gotten rid of the jewels, he’ll have lots of that.

“What do we do if they say no?” Felipe asks as he fumbles with his tie.

“They won’t.”

“But _if_ , Rob,” Felipe says, frustrating himself when his hands don’t do the things he wants.

Rob sighs and puts the phone in his pocket, standing and sorting out Felipe’s tie for him. “They won’t,” he said, paying attention to his hands and not on the pair of eyes gazing up at him. “But, if they do, then I’ll figure something out, don’t worry.”

“Is not just your problem to sort out,” Felipe says softly, taking hold of Rob’s hands when he’s finished making the knot and holding them close to his chest.

“I was the one who got us into this mess,” Rob says, as if he needs to remind Felipe of this. “I’m the one who’s going to fix it.”

“Is not your fault,” Felipe says, quietly.

That’s a lie, Rob thinks. Because Felipe had told him this would happen. It had been the main reason why Felipe had never wanted to leave in the first place. But Rob had managed to convince him. Told him stupid stories of the things they could do if they just left. They had just been stories though. Felipe was right.

Rob leans down to kiss Felipe, but it doesn’t feel as right as before.

“I’ll sort it,” he promises. “Have a good day.”

Felipe looks up at him again, a fear in his eyes that Rob hasn’t seen for months. It makes Rob shiver. Felipe steps away, a smile on his face that doesn’t reach his eyes, says goodbye, then leaves.

Rob watches him go, turning the phone round absent mindedly in his hand. He’s going to have to phone them.

“Bonjour?”

Rob doesn’t even realise he’s hit dial until he hears the Frenchman in his ear and it takes a few seconds for him to realise he’s going to have to talk.

“Bonjour, puis-je vous aider?”

“Romain?” Rob says, trying to stop his voice from shaking so much. “It’s Rob.”

“Rob…?”

“Smedley.”

“Ah, Rob,” Romain says, remembering Rob. “Long time no see, no? Heard from…. Ah, Lewis, that you were not working for him anymore?”

Why was every sentence a question?

“Yeah,” Rob says, sitting back onto the bed and running his hand through his hair. “Yeah, we’re not working for him.”

“We?” Romain asks. “Lewis did not mention a… er… we? You took Felipe with you?”

“Naturally,” Rob says, wondering exactly what Lewis has told everyone.

“Is not that surprising,” Romain says. There’s a muffled voice in the background and when the Frenchman speaks again, he can hear the phone has been pulled away from him. “C’est Rob. Smedley… Jen ne sais pas… Jev! Jev, me donner le téléphone.”

Rob listens to the scuffle on the other end of the phone and suddenly there’s another voice in his ear.

“Rob!” the new voice says. “How are you? How is life away from Lewis?”

“Life is good, yeah,” Rob says, trying to find something to do with his free hand to stop himself running his hands through his hair again. “Better. But, we’ve kind of hit a bit of a problem.”

“Ah, so you did not just phone to say hello,” Jev says. “Should have known. Shall pass you back to Romain now.”

“Sorry,” Romainapologises. “Jev has a new boyfriend who is rubbing off on him. What is the problem?”

Rob wastes no time explaining what has happened since he and Felipe left Lewis’ company, having to repeat some things when he spoke too fast for the Frenchman to understand. As he recites events, he can see how stupid he had been, how inevitable this was and, by the time he’s finished, he’s fully expecting Romain to tell him what an idiot he is.

When he finishes, Romain sighs sympathetically.

“Sounds like you do have a problem there,” he says. “But you were sure leaving Lewis was the right thing to do so…”

Rob nods even though he knows the Frenchman can’t see him.

“We can’t go back to him, Romain,” he says. “We have money, or we will do soon. We just need to get them hidden again.”

“Take it you do not think you can go in and take them yourselves?” Romain says.

“I doubt Lewis will let us do that,” Rob says.

“And you think he will let us wonder in and lead them away?”

“I think you’ll be able to do it without him noticing,” Rob corrects him. That’s what the Frenchmen do. They rescue hostages, sneak things away from under people’s noses. “We can pay you.”

Romain’s silent for a while. Rob can’t tell, but there’s a chance he goes off to speak to Jev, his partner in crime. Rob waits for the reply in silence, his fingers curling into thebed sheets and picking at a hole he’s found.

After what feels like an eternity, there’s another sigh on the end of the phone, almost making Rob jump.

“We will have to come and see for sure,” Romain says. “But we will see what we can do.”

“Thank you,” Rob says. “Whatever you can do.”

“And you can pay us?”

“I can pay you,” Rob insists.

“Well, we will come on the first plane,” Romain says. “You have not told me where you are staying though.”

Rob winces. He’s been avoiding mentioning their whereabouts, even though he’s always known he’s going to have to tell the Frenchman at some point.

“If you fly to Manchester Airport, I can pick you up from there,” he says, eventually. He trusts Romain. He knows Romain’s loyalties lie with money, and he won’t be betrayed whilst there’s money on the table. But Rob can’t be certain the conversation isn’t being listened to.

“Alright,” Romain says, understanding the situation. “I will let you know when the flight is due to come in as soon as I know. We will see you soon.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”

 

Felipe has been staring at a blank computer screen for half an hour, his mind not at work but waiting for Rob to phone him. He doesn’t look up when Fernando comes in, late as always, or when Fernando asks him how his night has been.

“Felipe?”

“Hmmm?” Felipe looks up quickly, suddenly realizing that his boss is stood on the other side of his desk, a concerned expression on his face. “Sorry, was away. What were you saying?”

“Are you alright?” Fernando asks. “Have never seen you like this before.”

Felipe shakes himself and wriggles the mouse to restart his computer. “Am fine. Just have other things on my mind.”

“Want to talk about it?” Fernando asks. “Might be able to help.”

Felipe shakes his head, trying to remember what it was he had been trying to start before he got lost in thought. “Does not matter. Is… is nothing.”

“Ok,” Fernando says, smiling as he goes back to his own chair. “But know you can talk to me if you need to. Are friends, no?”

“Yeah,” Felipe says, quietly. “If I need to talk, you will be the first I come to, for sure.”

He forces a smile, but he can tell Fernando doesn’t believe it. He tries to focus on the email he started before he started gazing into space. Boiler. He needs to sort out the boiler.

“Felipe,” Fernando says after watching Felipe’s eyes glaze almost instantly. “Go home.”

Felipe frowns and looks between his computer and his boss. “Have to sort out the boiler for number sixteen.”

“You are not even here really,” Fernando says. “Go home and sort out whatever is on your mind. Come back tomorrow and be ready to work. I will sort out the boiler for number sixteen.”

Felipe doubts that. He hasn’t seen Fernando sort out anything since he started working for him. But he doesn’t bother to argue. He really doesn’t want to be here, even if he knows there’s nothing he can do. He can’t just leave this all to Rob. It’s not fair.

“Thank you,” he says, quietly. “All of the details are on the spreadsheet. Have been thinking maybe we must change the repair man, as it keeps breaking and maybe the repair man is not so good.”

“Felipe, just go,” Fernando insists with a weak laugh. “I will see you tomorrow, though, ok?”

Felipe smiles back, but he still can’t make the smile reach his eyes. He hurries to tug on his coat and out of the office, mumbling a goodbye to Fernando as he leaves.

He’s on his way to the car when Rob finally phones.

“Sorry,” Rob says, before Felipe can say anything. “I meant to phone earlier, but I needed to calm down.”

“They cannot do it, can they?” Felipe says, stopping dead in the middle of the car park.

What are they going to do? They’re going to _have_ to bring Hamilton his money and they are going to _have_ to go back to working for him.

“They’re on their way here,” Rob says. “They need to talk to us properly before they decide what they want to do. Calm down. Things are going to be ok.”

“They’re coming here?” Felipe asks. “You told them where we are?”

“No, they’re going to Manchester airport and I’m going to pick them up,” Rob says.

“Alright,” Felipe says, quietly, hurrying to the car to get out of the way of cars leaving the car park. He leans against the car, struggling to find his keys in his pocket. “Have you heard any more from Lewis?”

“He hasn’t sent anything else, don’t worry,” Rob says, but he knows how stupid that sounds. Don’t worry. Of course he’s going to worry. Neither of them can do anything but worry. “I should get going though. Romain said they’d be on the next flight and they’ll probably be in Manchester before I am if I don’t go soon.”

“Ok,” Felipe says, quietly, but he’s still clutching the phone. “I am on my way back now. Fernando knows something is wrong and has sent me home.”

“He knows something’s wrong?”

“I have not said anything to him,” Felipe says, getting into the car. “But cannot focus. Notices these things and has sent me home to sort things out.” He laughs a little at the thought of it. “Cannot just sort it out, though, can we? Even if they do say yes, is not going to be magically better overnight.”

“It’ll take time, but we’ve got time,” Rob promises. “Felipe, I am not going to let anything happen to them.”

He’s promised that before, and that hasn’t worked out quite the way Felipe thinks Rob thought it would.

“Just wait until I get home before you leave,” Felipe says. “Can go to the airport together.”

“Alright,” Rob says. “But only because you’re already on your way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The real reason the boiler keeps breaking down is because it's probably older than Fernando and maybe the landlord should pay for a new one.


	7. The Frenchmen (Plue One)

Rob’s nervously tapping his foot as they wait impatiently with the other hundreds of people huddled around the arrivals area. He has Felipe’s hand wrapped tightly in his as if he’s scared the Brazilian might slip away from him, and has his phone in the other hand, checking the time approximately every twenty seconds. How long does it take to go through arrivals?

It’s going to be ok, he repeats to himself, over and over again. They’ve got weeks to sort this out. Half an hour isn’t going to hurt.

A lanky man with an enormous grin and a mop of black curls bursts into the arrivals hall, almost knocking over an elderly couple trying to find their family as he makes his way over to Rob and Felipe.

He looks between the two of them, dragging his suitcase to a stop.

“Smedley, right?” he asks, an Australian twang clear in his voice.

Rob nods slowly, his grip on Felipe’s hand tightening.

“Great, could you watch this for me? I’ll be back in a second,” the Australian says, dumping his suitcase beside them before hurrying back into the other hall.

Rob looks down at Felipe and he shrugs.

“You don’t think it could be a…” He looks down at the suitcase and kicks it gently with his foot. Nothing explodes, which is probably a good thing.

Felipe grins. “No, do not think it is _a…_ Think it would be pretty difficult to have _a_ … in an airport, Rob.”

He’s right, of course, but Rob still doesn’t understand what is going on.

The grinning Australian returns a couple of moments later with two people he does recognise, which only goes to further the confusion.

Romain and Jev both carry back-packs with a single, small suitcase between them. Both look tired and a lot less enthusiastic than their bubbling friend, who has taken his suitcase back now and ducked under the barrier between the new arrivals and their families.

“I’m Dan, by the way,” he says with a small wave, as they walk towards the exit. “I’m Jev’s boyfriend.”

“Could not get rid of him,” Romain explains from behind them. “Am sorry. He will not get in the way. _Will he,_ Jean-Eric?”

“No,” Jev says, definitely. He doesn’t sound as enthusiastic as he had done on the phone, Rob thinks, but he can imagine being on a plane with anyone as bubbly as Dan can kill any enthusiasm.

“Does he help?” Rob asks, turning back to the two Frenchman following them.

“Would not call it helping, exactly,” Romain says.

“He is not _that_ bad,” Jev says.

“Way to make me feel good, mate,” Dan says, still grinning. “Yeah, I do the same thing as these pair. Maybe not as good as them, but I’m learning the ways of the trade.”

“Well, there’s not going to be a lot of space in the car with all three of you,” Rob says. “It’s going to be a fun couple of hours drive.”

 

It’s dark by the time they arrive home. They pass a bed and breakfast on the way in and Rob suggests they stay there, but Romain and Jev both insist on talking about the job first. And on dinner.

Much to their annoyance, Rob orders take out, and they sit around the small dining table with the fish and chips, Jev and Romain poking it experimentally and deciding they could probably survive without trying the local delicacies.

“So,” Jev says, pushing the bundle of chips away as politely as he can. “The job.”

“I told you most of it over the phone,” Rob says.

“You told us the outline over the phone,” Romain says. “Still do not know enough to say if we can do it or not. The security? How many does Lewis have there? How much we are getting paid?”

“I guess they’re not in order of importance,” Rob mutters.

“Show them the video,” Felipe suggests. “Is all we know about what Lewis has planned.”

“There’s a video?” Romain asks.

 

Romain, Jev, and Dan all huddle around the small laptop screen, watching the video whilst Rob and Felipe watch them. None of them show any emotion on their faces as they watch, but Rob’s pretty sure he sees Jev glance up at them a couple of times.

The video finishes and Romain closes the laptop, looking between Rob and Felipe.

“I can see why you are scared,” he says. Romain has a family of his own and Rob doesn’t doubt the sincerity of the comment. But it doesn’t help them much. “It does not look like such an easy job, perhaps.”

“I don’t know,” Dan says, pointing at the laptop. “If we could get into the area then…”

Jev elbows him in the side. When Dan goes to complain, the Frenchman glares at him and he quickly realises his mistake.

“Ignore me, these guys know what they’re doing,” he says.

Rob folds his arms, knowing exactly what Romain and Jev were trying to do, but he’s not going to pay them anymore than he’s got anyway, whether it’s a hard job or not. And he knows the Frenchmen will take it. They always did.

“Cannot be certain on how Lewis is watching them,” Romain continues.

“We can take a guess and say he won’t have that many people involved,” Rob says. He and Felipe had worked for Hamilton for a while. They should know how he works by now. “Two. At most three. Watching the house from somewhere close by. Just to make sure we don’t just wonder in there and take them. He also has control over the phones, we think.”

Romain considers this for a moment, looks between Jev and Dan, then nods. “It is how we would expect Lewis to work.”

“Can you do it or not?” Felipe asks.

Romain raises his eyebrows but doesn’t answer straight away. Felipe usually keeps quiet though this kind of thing. Rob deals with serious side of things, and he does it well.

“We would have to see how much we are paid,” Jev says, slowly.

Felipe rolls his eyes and falls back onto the sofa. One bad thing about being a criminal is having to deal with them.

Rob sighs. He’d like very much to collapse onto the sofa too, but he’s the one that got them into this mess, and now he’s going to get them out of it.

“The Tinker-Tate robbery the other night,” Rob says. “Did you hear about that?”

Dan’s eyes go wide and his mouth falls open in surprise. Clearly he has heard about that.

“That was you?”

Rob nods.

“Those diamonds are worth a fortune,” Dan says.

“Jewels,” Rob corrects him. “But yeah, pretty much. I’ve a buyer who’s going to take them off my hands as soon as they’re cool enough. I can pass them onto you and he can pay you for them. He’s paying what they’re worth. Maybe a little more.”

Romain shook his head. “It is money or nothing.”

“No, but they really are worth a fortune,” Dan says.

“Does not matter,” Romain says. “We take money only.”

“The buyer would happily pay you as soon as everyone stops talking about the robbery,” Rob says. “Or don’t you trust me?”

“It is not that I do not trust _you_ ,” Romain says. “But we do not even know this fence of yours. And I do not trust _him_. You sell him the jewels, then you give the money to us. This is the only way we can do this.”

“He won’t by them until he knows he’s safe with them,” Rob says. “That’s not going to be for a couple of weeks, at least. Lewis has given us two weeks. Less than that now. We can’t wait.”

Romain shrugs. “There is not much we can do. We will wait until you have the money, and then we will take the job. We will do it, for sure.”


	8. Saturday at the office

Once the Frenchmen and their Australian puppy have gone to investigate the bed and breakfast, the house seems oddly quiet. Felipe is still sat on the sofa, staring into space, and it’s easy to see why Fernando sent him home. Rob falls into the seat next to him, sliding his arm around Felipe’s waist, but he doesn’t react.

“It’s going to be ok, you know,” Rob says, quietly. “It always is.”

“Is not, though, is it?” Felipe asks, quietly. “They are in trouble and they do not even know it. Two weeks. Is not enough time. We could go to him? We could tell him we are getting his money and we need more time?”

“I doubt that would work,” Rob says. When had Hamilton ever listened to them? Even when it was important – even when it was to benefit him – he hadn’t paid any attention.

And Felipe’s plan would involve going back to him, and Rob was trying to avoid that at almost all costs.

“Are not going to be able to get them the money before two weeks,” Felipe points out. “Would not even be able to get Lewis the money before two weeks if we tried. Do not see what else we can do.”

“I’ll sort things out with the fence,” Rob says. “I’ll get him to take everything off us. He knows me. He likes me. I’ll be able to do it.”

“For sure?” Felipe asks, quietly.

“For sure,” Rob confirms.

 

Felipe wakes the next morning before Rob does. He doesn’t remember hearing Rob come to bed and has no idea what time he got to sleep, so doesn’t bother to wake him as he silently goes through the usual morning ritual of getting ready for work. Even on Saturday’s the office doesn’t close, but more often than not Fernando isn’t there. Felipe is quite looking forward to the peace and quiet. He can gaze into space and get lost in his own thoughts without being disturbed by anyone. The idea seems quite nice.

In theory.

Leaving a note to let Rob know where he’s gone, in case he can’t figure it out for himself, Felipe heads off to work, the thought of peace and quiet still sounding good to him.

He’s the first one to arrive at Alonso’s office. There are only a few other people in the building and he smiles politely to them as he passes, not quite able to remember all their names.

He unlocks the door to the office with the key that Fernando, far too trusting, has given him, and is greeted by the silence of any empty room.

Felipe’s unsurprised to find an email when he turns the computer on from the residents of number sixteen that they still have not had anyone contact them about fixing the boiler. Of course Fernando hasn’t done anything. Felipe’s not even annoyed as he finds the phone number for the repair man in his list of contacts and gets started on trying to sort things out. Again.

By lunch, Fernando still not in, Felipe’s pretty sure he’s going to have a constructive day. The repair man is finally on his way to number sixteen, a few more minor complaints have been dealt with and, even though none of these people actually matter to him, Felipe’s feeling a little better by the end of it. They’ve phoned the equivalent of the boiler repair man, and they arrived a lot sooner than the guy will get to number sixteen. They’re not sitting around doing nothing.

There’s a heavy thud on the other side of the door that makes Felipe jump, then a groan and stifled giggles. Felipe rolls his eyes and does his best to try to ignore it. Fernando has arrived.

The Spaniard comes into the office backwards, his lips glued to Mark’s. Mark kicks the door shut behind them and pushes Fernando onto his desk, not breaking their kiss once. Even when Felipe clears his throat, they don’t stop. Felipe doesn’t blame Rob for being wary of spending time with the two of them together.

Eventually, Fernando pushes Mark away and Felipe expects him to start gasping for breath. He looks up at Mark, cupping his stubble coated cheek in one hand, and smiling slightly. Even from across the room, Felipe can see Fernando’s eyes are gleaming. This is a lot more awkward to watch than the kiss.

“I should get going,” Mark says, eventually. “I’m going to be late for work.”

“That did not stop me,” Fernando points out.

The familiar sensation of wanting to vomit starts to bubble inside Felipe.

“Well, if I had a boss as half as amazing as you do, I’d be willing the push him a little more too,” Mark says. “But I don’t. So I need to go.”

“I will pick you up later,” Fernando says, his hand dropping away from Mark’s face as the Australian steps back. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Felipe watches Mark go, the suggestion Rob had made before on his mind. Mark cannot possibly be in this just for the money. You only have to look at Fernando’s face to know how in love he is. Surely he cannot be that happy if he doesn’t feel Mark feels the same way.

“Was not expecting you in today,” Felipe says.

“Why not?”

“Are never in on Saturdays,” Felipe says. “Thought you were maybe planning for your wedding, you know. Is not long now.”

“Counting down the hours,” Fernando says, smiling down at his key board as he settles into the chair behind his desk. “But, no, is not that much to sort out. Have the registry office and the person to marry us. Have the witnesses. And have Mark. Do not need anything else.”

“How did you meet, again?” Felipe asks. Mark cannot be a gold digger, and he needs Fernando to give him evidence that Mark is as in love with him as he is with Mark.

“I was hosting a meal at the restaurant he works at,” Fernando say. Felipe’s pretty sure he’s been told this story before but he can’t say he’s ever been listening. “Booked out the entire restaurant for it. He was working, of course. And… you see Mark, don’t you? Is beautiful. Gave him my phone number at the end of the night. Did not really expect anything to come from it, but he phoned me the next night. Asked if I wanted to go to dinner… Could not really believe it at first. _Still_ cannot really believe it. But here we are.”

“Booked out a _whole_ restaurant?” Felipe asks. “Must cost a lot of money, no?”

Fernando laughs. “Is not as if I go without, Felipe,” he jokes, tapping at the computer to try to get it started.

“So, Mark knew you had lots of money?” Felipe asks.

“Everyone knows I have lots of money, Felipe,” Fernando says. “Think this is half the reason Mark wants our money in a joint account. Would probably be safer, but do not want to admit he is right, or else I will never hear the end of it.”

He grins and turns back to the computer, probably to start another game of solitaire.

Mark’s a gold digger.

Felipe doesn’t want to believe it. He wants to see it from Fernando’s eyes and wants to believe they are happy.

But he can’t.

He’s not sure whether he should warn Fernando or not. If he’s aware one person is after his money, he might become more protective over the rest of it, and Felipe doesn’t like that sound of that. He keeps his mouth shut.

“I do not think I have ever asked you how you met Rob,” Fernando says.

“Ah, is not anything that exciting,” Felipe says, waving away the question. “Just worked together.”

“You did what he does?” Fernando asks.

Felipe shakes his head. “Was in money security,” he lies. He’s not entirely sure what that means, but that’s what Rob has told him to say if anyone inquires.

“That sounds fancy,” Fernando says. “Explains why you’re so good at this, then.”

Felipe’s not sure that’s true. Even if he doesn’t know what ‘money security’ means, he’s pretty sure there aren’t that many transferable skills between whatever that is and working for a lazy landlord.

“Must be very clever,” Fernando says. Something in his voice has changes and when Felipe looks up he’s surprised to find Fernando watching him.

He shrugs. “Not really.”

“You put yourself down too much,” Fernando says. “Are always putting yourself down too much.”

Felipe looks puzzled and tries to think of an event that Fernando could suggest to prove this fact, but he can’t.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“Nothing,” Fernando says quickly, looking at his computer. There’s the faintest tinge of red in his cheeks, but Felipe notices it.

He decides to file that away in the draw of ‘things we should not talk about’.


	9. Meeting With The Fence

“I’m sorry, Rob. Of course I want to help, but it isn’t exactly as if I have much of a choice at the moment. If I buy these from you, I’m not going to have another buyer for at least three weeks. So I’ve got to have stolen goods in my house for that time. I can’t take them off you, yet. Come back in a fortnight, eh? I’ll buy them then.”

“Can’t have stolen goods in your house? You’re a fucking fence, Jense,” Rob says, a little too loudly. He glances around the busy restaurant they’ve decided to meet in, but nobody seems to be listening. He sighs before continuing, quieter, “I thought that was the point.”

“Not for three weeks,” the fence, a fellow Brit named Jenson, says. “I like a quick turn-around, mate.”

“Well, _mate_ , if you don’t want them, I’ll find someone else,” Rob threatens.

Jenson laughs, not maliciously but in disbelief. “I’d like to see you try, Rob. What’s the big hurry, anyway? You’re usually fine to wait. The cops aren’t after you, are they?”

“We need the money,” Rob says. “And quickly. The police aren’t on to us or anything like that. We just need the money.”

He doesn’t really fancy telling the fence why he needs the money so quickly. Dodging the police is one thing, and Jenson will quite happily do that if he thinks he can get a good deal for it. Playing games with Lewis Hamilton is quite a different matter, and Jenson’s been burnt due to those games before. He doesn’t need to know Hamilton is involved.

Jenson sighs and falls back into his chair, glass of wine in hand. He’s drinking, and has ordered something to eat. Rob’s happy he’s managed to get away with a glass of water. He really doesn’t want to stay here long.

“I’d probably consider you a friend, Rob, if I considered anyone I do business with friends,” Jenson says. “But I cannot take the merchandise three weeks before I can sell it. I just can’t. I’d prefer one week. But, because it’s you, I’ll meet you half way. If neither of us have had any visits from the police in a week’s time, I’ll come and buy the merchandise from you. But that’s as early as I can do.”

A week. They are already two days into their fourteen days. That gives Romain, Jev, Dan five days to come up with a plan to get them out and to execute it. Rob would like to think the Frenchmen are already coming up with ideas but he knows from experience he can’t rely on that.

“Are you absolutely certain you can’t even do a day more?” Rob asks.

“Yes,” Jenson said, holding up his glass when one of the waiters scurried past. Rob doesn’t even look up to see the man take the glass, glaring at his own pint of water. “A week is the absolute earliest.”

“Alright,” Rob says, quietly.

“Don’t you have other avenues?” Jenson asked. “I thought you were on a job at the moment.”

“Alonso,” Rob says. He’s not sure why, but he feels comfortable talking to Jenson. It’s like he said: if they could be friends, they would be. And there aren’t that many people he talks to on a regular basis he can discuss his job with. “It’s going to take a little while longer for that to come through, I think.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know why this is taking longer than expected,” Rob says. “I mean, Felipe’s working for him now and the sooner we can get him out of there, the better. But it’s a lot of money, and we can’t afford to rush it.”

The waiter returns with a new glass of wine for Jenson, but Rob’s too wrapped up in his own thoughts to even notice it.

“You’ll do it,” Jenson says. “A hard one to fool?”

“Surprisingly easy,” Rob says. “I don’t know why we keep putting it off. I mean, make a lot of money, and leave as soon as possible, put him and his annoying fiancé in their places… I don’t know. Just nerves, I guess.”

“Look at it this way,” Jenson says. “You left Lewis. I don’t think there’s possibly anything you can do scarier than that, and you did it.”

 _And that worked out well_ , Rob thinks.

“I guess you’re right,” he says. “Well, the guy’s getting married on Tuesday. I think Felipe wants him to have his day before we do anything.”

It’s probably a good idea to wait until everything is cleared up with Lewis before they try anything with Fernando. Distractions will only make them more likely to slip up.

“As long as he doesn’t spend everything on the wedding.”

“They’re having a quiet one,” Rob says. “He only proposed last Tuesday.”

“The fiancé works fast,” Jenson observes

“That’s what I thought,” Rob says. “Never mind. The hit’s private life is nothing to do with me. _Anyway_ , I should probably get going. I’ve a client at half past.”

“You know what your problem is, don’t you?” Jenson says, watching as Rob gets up and quickly puts on his coat. “You…”

“Work too hard?” Rob finishes, placing a ten pound note on the table. It’s more than enough for the water, he thinks. Sweeten Jenson up a little. “For the water.”

“You don’t drink enough,” Jenson corrects him, raising the glass of wine.

Rob smiles weakly and nods, not sure how he’s supposed to answer that.

“I’ll see you in a week then,” he says.

“And not a day before.”  


The finance plan Rob has made for the clients doesn’t even really make sense for him this time. He apologises to the couple opposite him, telling them he’ll rework it so it makes more sense and pretending that he hasn’t entirely fucked it up because he got distracted. None of the clients really seem to pay any attention to how much work Rob puts in to their plans and the basic running of their lives, even ones they’re not planning on robbing. Sometimes it bugs him a little that they completely dismiss the fact that he has a life of his own, but the annoyance is almost always forgotten as soon as the client is out of the door.

Rob sees them out with a friendly smile, promising over and over again he’ll do a better job next time, which is only met by an annoyed scowl from the husband.

He sighs as he waves them off, then goes inside, closing the door behind him and blocking out the world outside.

A week.

He hasn’t really had time to think about the meeting with Jenson, but he needs to figure out what he’s going to tell Felipe. The Brazilian will panic, probably with good reason, about having to wait a week. Five days for Romain, Jev, and Dan to figure out what they’re going to do and actually do it. He knows the Frenchmen can work quickly, but he’s no idea about Dan, and every job is different.

And he’s certain he has no negotiating power with Jenson. He’d usually barter with the fence, try to get the price a little higher, but he’s given Jenson all the power. They need the money, he doesn’t need to buy the jewels. Rob knows he will get less for the night’s raid than he would do under normal circumstances, but he doesn’t care, as long as it’s enough for Romain and Jev.

They’ll be fine though, he tells himself. They’re in a better situation than they were in at the start of the day, and nothing’s impossible He’s getting them out of this mess.

Rob takes the finances plan he’s written up for his clients and gets started on making it better whilst he waits for Felipe to return home.


	10. The decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make it clear that I have no idea why it was the out boiler wasn't fixed, and if it is due to anything similar to this storyline, I really didn't know.

The next two days pass slowly. Felipe doesn’t work Sundays, and he sits around the house, still in his own thoughts. Rob has tried to rip him out of them a couple of times, but he doesn’t know what to say either, so he lets Felipe lie in them, watching him closely to make sure the thoughts aren’t too deep and he is still ok. The activities they would usually be getting up to on a Sunday don’t feel right anymore, and Rob doesn’t even suggest them. He throws himself into his work, keeping a careful eye on Felipe all the while.

Monday, Felipe goes through the usual routine of checking the houses Alonso owns in person, making sure everything’s ok, listening to any complaints, and getting an ear-bashing from number sixteen, whose boiler is still not fixed. He goes through an unbelievable amount of tea – Rob has taught him to never turn down an offer of tea, and every one of the residents seem to have the same “offer tea as soon as possible” belief as Rob – and makes promises to get things sorted out as soon as possible.

The only good thing about Mondays is that he doesn’t have to sit in the office all day, but even that some days isn’t much of a highlight.

Tuesday comes around far too slowly for Felipe’s liking, but he’s eventually back in the empty office, this time with no chance of Fernando and Mark bursting in.

He tries to make progress with the boiler at number sixteen, but he spends most of the day clock watching, wondering what Fernando and Mark are doing now.

It seems like an eternity since he married Raffaela. He can still remember how nervous he was on the day. There was so much that could go wrong and so much for him to screw up, but, surprisingly, everything went without a hitch. He doesn’t quite remember every exact detail – a fact he denies if his wife ever asks him – but he remembers how he felt. He remembers he felt like he would never be happier than that moment.

Does Fernando feel like that?

Probably, yes.

And all that happiness would be gone so soon. Felipe doubts Mark will stick around for long after they’ve finished with Fernando if Rob is right and he is only there for the money. Fernando will still have his friends, but it’s not the same as what he has – or what he thinks he has – with Mark. It’s almost enough to make Felipe feel a little sorry for him. Almost.

The Spaniard will get over it, though, Felipe thinks. Eventually.

 

“I’ve a meeting with one half of the happy couple tomorrow,” Rob says, when Felipe asks him about his day. “Mark phoned yesterday and wanted to rearrange the meeting with Fernando to tomorrow.”

“Are not having a honeymoon?” Felipe asks, concentrating on wrapping the noodles around his fork like Rob does, something he’s never really gotten the hang of.

“That’s what I asked,” Rob says. “But Mark said he couldn’t get the time off of work until Christmas.”

“Doubt they will still be together at Christmas,” Felipe snorts.

“That’s what I thought,” Rob says. “Come here. Do you need some help?”

“I am fine,” Felipe says, still struggling with the noodles.

Rob smiles as he watches Felipe try, and fail, to get the noodles into his mouth without spilling any anywhere.

“So you get the office to yourself again tomorrow,” Rob says.

“Is not so much fun anymore,” Felipe says. “Have got copies of everything in Fernando’s draw and on his computer. Checked if there was anything new today and there isn’t.”

They’re as ready as they’re ever going to be to make the hit on Fernando. Maybe the meetings with Rob will give them a tiny bit more information, but nothing that will be largely important in the grand scheme of things, Felipe’s sure. But they’ve both agreed it’s better to wait until they know their families are safe until they do anything.

“Maybe you’ll finally get the boiler at number sixteen fixed, then,” Rob jokes.

“Is a serious issue,” Felipe says, always a little annoyed when Rob made out his cover job was useless. “They have no heating and it is getting colder and colder. If it is left any longer, they will stop paying rent and maybe sue. Do not know what Fernando is going to do when we leave. Even if we did not take all his money, would probably go bankrupt for court cases.”

“Alright, ok,” Rob laughs. “I get it.”

Felipe highly doubts Rob “gets it” at all, but doesn’t bother bringing this up, returning again to his noodles and ignoring Rob’s stifled giggles.

 

The luxury of having the office to himself is beginning to wear thin. The excuses the boiler repair man are giving him are beginning to wear thin too, and Felipe’ s making his way through the directory in search of another repair man when the office door opens.

Expecting to see one of the women from the office next door, who sometimes come in when they’re printer is jammed, making jokes about Bob Marley Felipe doesn’t understand, he looks up, but it’s Mark who’s closing the office door behind him.

“Mark? How was the day?” Felipe asks. “Thought you were at work today, though?”

“I got the day off,” Mark says, ignoring the questions on the wedding.

“Should have gone on honey moon then,” Felipe says. “Even if it is only for the day. I heard Brighton is nice.”

“I’d rather come here and have a chat with you,” Mark says. He takes Fernando’s chair from behind the second desk and sits opposite Felipe. The usual smile on his face is gone, making Felipe shuffle back in his seat a little.

“What is the matter,” Felipe asks. “For sure, have lots of work to do.”

“Don’t pretend you care about this, Felipe, because we both know that’s not true,” Mark says.

“I do not…”

“I had a very interesting customer at work the other day,” Mark says, cutting him off. He leans forward on the desk, brushing the phone book out of the way. “He, this customer, had a meeting with this guy who comes in sometimes, but he only ordered water. The other guy ordered quite a bit to drink and I served him. I don’t think the water drinker noticed it was me, though. And, whilst I was serving, I heard a little bit of their conversation. It sounded an awful lot to me like the water drinker was planning to steal a lot of money from my new husband, Felipe. Isn’t that funny? There I was, thinking this was just another business meeting, when I hear Fernando’s name. And do you know what the funniest part of it all was? It was _your_ husband, Felipe. Your husband discussing robbing mine. Isn’t that weird?”

“I do not…”

“Don’t give me that crap, mate,” Mark says. “I heard it all. I know you’re both in on it.”

Felipe opens and closes his mouth, trying to come up with something to say, but nothing that can be of any help comes to mind.

“I haven’t told Nando yet,” Mark says. “I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight first, so I did a little research. And can you guess what I found?”

Felipe shakes his head, even though he’s pretty sure he can.

“You and Smedley are wanted criminals, Felipe!” Mark cries. “Isn’t that weird?”

“What do you want?” Felipe asks. If Mark was going to go to the police or tell Fernando, he would have done it by now. “If it is money we do not have any right now.”

“I’m married to one of the richest people in this city,” Mark says. “I don’t need money, Felipe. What I need is help.”

“Help?” Felipe asks, quietly, his heart beating so hard he can barely hear himself over the noise of it.

“You see, I don’t think this marriage is going to work out,” Mark says, slowly. “Don’t get me wrong, Nando’s a nice guy and everything, but I don’t really think we’re meant to be together.”

“Maybe you should end it then,” Felipe says, slowly. He’s still trying to figure out what this has to do with him. “Is no need to hurt Fernando any more.”

“And you really care about that?” Mark laughs. “I can’t just end things with Fernando, for the same reason you can’t just quit this job. Money.”

Rob was right. Of course he was right, Felipe thinks. No matter how much Felipe doesn’t want to believe it, it’s true.

“I still do not understand,” Felipe says.

“Of course not,” Mark says. “I guess Rob’s the brains of these operations then. I need Fernando to be the reason the marriage ends. And you’re going to make that happen.”

Felipe stares, blankly at him for a couple of moments. The words going into his head aren’t making any sense to him, or they are but he doesn’t want to believe the answer they’re coming up with. Mark wouldn’t do that. Mark wouldn’t suggest that. Not with that smirk on his face.

“How?”

“All I need to do is walk in on him with his hands all over you,” Mark says, poking Felipe in the chest to emphasis the point.

Felipe looks down at the spot Mark touched. “Fernando would not do this. Loves you. Would not be able to convince him to play along.”

“Please, he’s had a thing for you since the moment you applied for the job,” Mark says. “Tried to deny it at first, but he admitted it eventually. Should be easy.”


	11. Mark's Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I think I might start updating daily with this fic, purely because I'm nearly finished and I'm really far ahead.  
> 2) This chapter is really yucky. Sorry.

“I am making shepherd’s pie tonight,” Rob calls in from the kitchen when he hears the front door shut. “No complaining. Your boss is a miracle. I swear. We should have gotten Mark to do this weeks ago. Alonso will give me whatever I want. Felipe?”

A small sob is the only reply he gets. Rob drops the potatoes he’s chopping and rushes in to greet Felipe, but is met by a tear stained face and another, louder sob.

“Felipe, what’s happened?”

“Mark knows,” Felipe says, trying to keep his voice still enough to be understood.

“What?”

“Mark knows what we are trying to do.”

“But… how?” Rob asks. “Oh, Felipe. What did you say?”

“Was not _me_ ,” Felipe snaps. “Was _you_ and your stupid meeting with Jenson. Not even looking at the waiter before you start broadcasting our plans. _You_ have made us get into a mess, _again_.”

Rob tries to think back to the meeting. He hadn’t even seen a waiter come over, but he was pretty sure he remembered Jenson’s wine being refilled.

“What did he say?” Rob asks, his voice catching in his throat when he realises it _is_ his fault, _again_.

“Says I have to help him split up from Fernando or he will go to the police,” Felipe says, quietly. His eyes are on the floor so he doesn’t have to see Rob’s reaction.

“ _Help_?” Rob asks. “How do you mean ‘help’?”

“Help,” Felipe says. “How do you think he means? Say so yourself he needs Fernando to be the one to ruin the marriage and I…” He falls onto the sofa, shaking so hard he can’t stand anymore. His head is in his hands so he doesn’t see when Rob sits down beside him, only feeling the cushions dip and then the arm pulling him into a hug. He fights it, still a little angry that Rob automatically thinks this is his fault, but eventually allows Rob to smother him, lets Rob rock him a little, lets him shush all he wants

“What did you say?” Rob asks, eventually.

“Did not have a choice,” Felipe says. “If I did not say yes there and then he was going to go to the police. What happens if we get arrested, Rob? What happens to Raffaela and Lucy and the kids?”

It’s all he can think about. It’s the one thing that managed to get him to drive home from work without crashing the car or something. He needs to do this, because he needs to keep them safe.

“I don’t know,” Rob says, honestly. Felipe’s not going to fall for any feel good crap right now. “How… how are you supposed to…?”

“Mark says it should be easy,” Felipe says, laughing a little at how stupid that sounds. “Says Fernando has always had a… a thing for me. Would you do it?”

“Would I do what?”

“If Mark came to you and told you to help, would you have said yes?” Felipe asks.

He looks up at Rob, finally, waiting for an answer, but Rob just stars back. Felipe can’t tell if he doesn’t understand the question or if he just doesn’t want to answer it, but he says nothing for a long time, his face not changing as he thinks. Felipe looks down at the floor again. Of course he wouldn’t. Rob would never betray him. Rob would never bring himself down to something like this…

“If I was protecting you,” Rob says, eventually. “If I were you, and I were put in your position, I would do it. I don’t think you had a choice.”

“You do not… you do not hate me?”

“You’ve done nothing wrong,” Rob says. He stands and pulls Felipe up with him. He touches his forehead with Felipe’s, ignoring the fact that the height difference made them look stupid. Peering into Felipe’s tear filled eyes, he can see himself reflected back in them, and can’t stop the rolling of his stomach when he remembers again that this, all this, is his fault. “There are lots of reasons why I love you,” he says, his breath bouncing back off of Felipe’s cheeks and onto his own face. “This is one of them.”

 

The plan is Mark’s. It’s clear he’s thought all this through, and that fact scares Felipe a little. Everything so far has gone according to his plan. They really are that predictable.

Fernando has a meeting: a very important dinner date with someone who could take the business from the small, local setting to something much bigger. For weeks, Felipe has been working quietly on this in the background, between boiler breakdowns and house checks. He’s a little proud he managed to get Fernando the meeting, but had been worried about Fernando going and screwing it up.

That is the least of his troubles now.

The meeting wasn’t until the late evening, long after office hours, but Mark knew Fernando was planning on staying in the office until the meeting. With the long drive home for him, and staying in the town center was a lot more convenient.

There was the chance.

Mark recited his plan to Felipe, and Felipe recited it to Rob, and then to himself over and over again as he offers to stay late to help Fernando put the final touches on the business plan.

Fernando’s more than happy for him to stay. Like Mark said he would be.

“And that is it really,” Felipe says, standing behind Fernando and leaning against the desk, pointing with his other hand at what he wasreferring to on the computer screen. “Is very, very simple.”

Even you should be able to do it, he thinks.

“Is quite clever, really,” Fernando says, looking up at Felipe from his chair.

“You should tell Rob that,” Felipe mutters, standing and going back to his own desk.

“What do you mean?” Fernando asks.

“Is nothing,” Felipe says, waving the comment away.

Fernando does exactly as Mark said he would do.

“Can talk to me, Felipe,” Fernando reminds him. “Is clear something is bothering you.”

“Is nothing,” Felipe says again. “Just… just Rob.”

“What about him?” Fernando asks.

“Is just… has gotten it into his head that this is _easy_ ,” Felipe says. “Says anyone can do what I do.”

“Mark is the same,” Fernando says. “Says this is not _proper_ work. Is just a waste of time.”

“Rob just does not understand,” Felipe says. “I mean, maybe is not the hardest job in the world, and maybe his job is more difficult, but does not mean this is… pointless. Is no need to put me down because I am here rather than whatever it is he does.”

“He puts you down?” Fernando asks.

Felipe shakes his head. “Not really. A little, maybe. Is nothing.”

“Is not nothing,” Fernando says, standing. “I would not even have a business if it was not for you.”

He stands on the other side of Felipe’s desk. When Felipe looks up at him, he can see it. Mark was right.

“I get it, Felipe,” Fernando says. “Look at Mark. Goes on that this is not a proper job. Does notappreciate that this has a purpose too. Does not _understand_. But… you do.”

Felipe nods a little and he can feel the sick rising in his throat, because _Mark is right_. Everything he’s said is right.

Fernando can see him shaking and pulls him up. “Ignore Rob, does not understand.”

Felipe stumbles out from around the desk, guided by Fernando. There’s still a little part of his brain telling him they’ve both misinterpreted the situation and this is all going to fall flat on its face but when Fernando cup’s Felipe’s cheek in one hand, the little part goes silent.

“Felipe?” Fernando asks, quietly.

Felipe looks up at him, trying to keep his shaking to a minimum.

Fernando doesn’t finish the question, pressing his lips against Felipe’s and stealing his breath for a moment. He tries to go deeper and, for a moment, Felipe forgets to let him. When he does remember to part his lips, Fernando’s tongue darts inside, exploring Felipe’s mouth and almost making him choke at the unwanted intrusion.

It would be ok. Just until Mark arrives.

Fernando pulls away slowly and looks down at him.

“Sorry,” he says, quickly. “I did not… I do not know…”

Felipe shakes his head. He’s got to do this. Just until Mark shows up.

He pulls Fernando back into a kiss, this time closing his own eyes and letting Fernando take him properly. Fernando moves them, not breaking the kiss, so that Felipe is trapped between the wall and Fernando. His hands come up to Fernando’s hair, his fingers curling into the usually perfect mop.

Fernando moves hungrily down to Felipe’s neck, sucking and licking and biting and making Felipe’s breathing erratic. He tugs on Felipe’s shirt, trying to get further but finding the fabric in the way.

“Hey, careful,” Felipe says, trying and failing to keep his voice level. “Cannot all afford new shirts everyday like you.”

“Off,” Fernando says before bringing his lips back to Felipe’s.

Slowly, carefully, Felipe undoes the shirt.

_Just until Mark arrives. This is just until Mark arrives…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you it was yucky. I do not normally write this thing, hence why it is so bad. Sorry again. Promise no more now.


	12. Working Late

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not a happy chapter.

Romain and Jev arrive prepared for the meeting with a picnic basket of food which, Dan informs Rob, they didn’t cook but want him to think they did.

Rob has been sat waiting for them to show up and distract him all day. All he can think about is Felipe and Fernando, and he needs this meeting to stop those thoughts as much as anything else.

“Two days,” Rob says as Romain dishes out the food for the four of them. “I can have your money in two days.”

“What has happened to this two weeks of yours, hmmm?” Jev asks, grinning.

“I managed to get a deal,” Rob says. “Might not be as much as it could have been before, though.”

“How much is not as much?” Romain asks, suspiciously.

“I don’t know yet,” Rob says, helping the Frenchman bring the plates to the table where Dan was waiting. “I’ll find out on Saturday.”

“Do not know if we will be able to do it if we do not know the price,” Romain says.

“It will be enough,” Rob says, through gritted teeth, sticking his fork into the pasta with a lot more force than necessary.

“We have something of an idea as to what we are to do,” Romain says. “Would be easier if you could tell us where they are, of course…”

“I’m not telling you where they are until I know for certain you’re working for us,” Rob says.

“You do not trust us?” Jev asks.

“I wouldn’t trust anyone with this,” Rob says. He’s already gotten them into enough trouble. The last thing he needs to do is to get them into even more.

“Where’s the other one?” Dan asks. “The little one.”

“Felipe’s working late,” Rob mumbles. They lasted long without asking, but not long enough for Rob’s liking.

“Oooh,” Jev says and Rob’s sure he and Romain are grinning at one another but Rob doesn’t look up.

“Was that not what you would use to tell Lucy?” Romain asked. “That you are working late?”

“Lucy knew what was going on,” Rob says.

“Then it is what Felipe would tell Raffaela,” Jev continues. “Does “working late” not translate to “fucking my partner”?”

“He’s working late,” Rob repeats. He knows they can’t find out what Felipe’s working late _on_. He’ll never hear the end of it. All the stupid grins and the snide comments, when he _knows_ Felipe doesn’t want to be there.

 

Mark has still not come.

Felipe lies on his side, burning with anger and embarrassment, waiting for the office door to open, but it doesn’t.

Fernando’s arms are still around his waist, his lips gently pressing kisses to a spot behind his ear, but Felipe doesn’t react to them.

Mark said he was going to come, but he still hasn’t. There’s nothing else they can do to prolong this and wait for him to show up. They’re both spent – something Felipe’s even more ashamed about – and lying on the grimy carpet of the office floor, recovering.

Mark isn’t coming.

Fernando retracts himself from Felipe and goes back to his desk, pulling out a pack of wet wipes from the top draw. The draw where he’d found everything else they needed.

“So you do not feel…” Fernando waves the pack of wet wipes in substitution for a word he can’t come up with.

“Can still go,” Felipe finds himself saying, still clinging to the hope that Mark will come.

Fernando laughs, weakly. “Have your special meeting to attend.”

“Forget about it,” Felipe says. “I can arrange another.”

“No,” Fernando says. “You worked hard for this and I am not going to ruin that.”

He kisses Felipe, gently this time but still making Felipe’s entire mouth burn, then goes to get dressed again.

“Is time,” Felipe says.

Fernando laughs. “What kind of state do you want me to show up in? Another time, yes?”

Felipe cringes when Fernando has his back to him. Not another time. Never again.

Still watching the door, because there’s still a tiny bit of time, Felipe cleans himself up as best he can and pulls his clothes back on.

 

The Frenchmen and Dan are gone by the time Felipe gets back. In the time between leaving the office and opening his front door he has been in some kind of days. It’s a blur, but he’s managed to arrive home safely and that alone is surprising.

As soon as the door shuts on the outside world, the daze breaks, and Felipe sinks to the floor, burying his head in his hands and waits for Rob to come and find him.

Rob hears the door shut from the office, but doesn’t move. Can’t move. He sits in complete silence and listens to Felipe’s shaking breathes and small sobs, trying to remind himself that this is for the best. It’s over now. They don’t need to worry about Mark again. They can focus on getting rid of Lewis and starting a new life somewhere where this doesn’t matter.

He doesn’t think he’s going to be able to easily forget this, though.

And he knows Felipe won’t.

 

Felipe’s not sure how long he’s been lying in front of the front door. He’s pretty sure he cried himself to sleep at one point, but he might have just made that up. The light’s still on in the living room. Rob hasn’t come in yet.

He wants to go to bed. He wants to go to sleep and forget about today, just for a couple of hours, but he doesn’t think he’s going to be able to make it up the stairs. He doesn’t think he’s going to be able to make it _to_ the stairs.

He looks at them, trying to assess the distance, and it’s only then he notices Rob sat a couple of steps up from the bottom, his head resting against the wall beside the stairs, sleeping.

“Rob?”

Rob jumps and almost falls down the stairs. He looks around the dim room, trying to figure out where he is and why he’s there, then he spots Felipe and remembers.

Felipe manages to shuffle round so he’s sitting up, wincing slightly. The floor begins to spin and he has to sit with his back to the door and eyes closed to try to stop that.

“I didn’t know what to say,” Rob says. “Did you…”

Felipe nods. He’s not certain he knows what Rob’s referring to, but he’s sure he can guess.

“Ok,” Rob says, nodding. He tries to bring he’s knees to his chest but there isn’t enough space on the step, so he rests his arms on them. “And it went… ok?”

Rob isn’t even sure what he means by that, but Felipe nods anyway.

“And Fernando and Mark…?”

Felipe gulps. “Mark did not come.”

“What?”

“He did not come, he does not know,” Felipe says, and the tears come again.

“Why?”

“I do not know and I do not care _why_ ,” Felipe says. “I just want to go to bed. Please, Rob.” He gulps back tears before saying, quieter: “Please.”

The exhaustion is clear on his face, and Rob nods coming down the stairs. When he offers a hand to help Felipe up, he just looks at it, his hands still by his side. Rob waits for a couple of seconds, then crouches down beside him.

“Are you ok?” he asks.

Felipe meets the cool blue eyes and is surprised to find tears in them. They make his stomach lurch. He shouldn’t have done it. He should have found something else to offer Mark, something better. He should have…

“Come on,” Rob says, lifting Felipe to stand as he does.

He’s almost certain his legs are going to give way again as they walk up the stairs. He’s going to fall to the bottom and drag Rob down too. Maybe then Rob would leave him there, and it would probably be for the better.

He doesn’t fall though. Rob takes him up the stairs and into the bedroom. They stand there for a moment, before Rob starts to undress for bed.

“Can we… turn off the light?” Felipe asks, pulling off his shoes with shaking hands.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you to see what he has done.”

Rob nods and switches off the light and the darkness surrounds them again.


	13. Talking

Rob lies in the bed, Felipe in his arms, watching the sun creep across the ceiling. He’s not sure if he slept. If he did, it wasn’t for very long. He can hear Felipe’s gentle breathing, not shaking, not worried. He’s already seen what Felipe didn’t want him to see. As soon as he realised it was light enough, he looked, unable to stop himself. The bruises only made Rob hold him closer though, and he was never going to let him go again.

It’s a couple of hours after Rob decided he isn’t going to bother trying to get back to sleep anymore that Felipe begins to stir, egged on by the now familiar sound of his phone vibrating on the bedside table. Before Felipe could awake properly, Rob grabs it.

Text from Fernando, of course.

Rob knows he shouldn’t read the message. His brain is screaming at him to not read the message, but he still unlocks the phone and taps the message icon with his thumb.

_I know you have the day off today, but if you want to come in to discuss how the meeting went last night, I will be here. ;)_

Rob cringes and finds himself deleting the message before he can even think about it. He drops the phone onto the bedside table and shifts even closer to Felipe, closing his eyes to pretend to be asleep a little longer.

 

When Rob wakes again, Felipe is gone. He can hear the shower running through the open bedroom door and lies there for a while, listening to the water.

He doesn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what to do last night and he doesn’t know what to do now. He _wants_ to go back to normal. He wants to pretend this hasn’t happened, but it has, and he doesn’t think Felipe will forget about it easily.

They need to talk, but he doesn’t think that’s going to come easily either.

He finds his own phone besides Felipe’s and checks the time. Half eleven. He has a meeting in half an hour. Great.

It’s six days before the deadline, he realises, as he drags himself out of bed and, without waiting for the shower, gets dressed. Six days before whatever Hamilton has planned happens. He knows better than to call his bluff. Experience tells that isn’t a very successful method.

It’s all he can think of as he goes through the new, improved plan for the unappreciative couple who have returned no matter how many threats they make about going to a new find a new financial advisor. To be fair, Rob doesn’t think it’s the worst thing he could be thinking about.

The dinner went well with the Frenchmen. They’d tried to make excuses, to make more money, but it hasn’t worked. They have a plan in place, as much as they can without having all the details, and Rob knows he doesn’t have anything to worry about from them.

“Excuse me?” the woman asks, and Rob realises he’s been silent for a while now, staring into space.

“Sorry,” Rob says, quickly, feeling himself go red. “A lot on my mind. Where was I?”

“We pay for you to help us, not for you to daydream,” the husband mutters.

“Yes, I am sorry,” Rob says through gritted teeth. “Where was I?”

“It’s not very professional,” the husband observes.

It’s also not very professional to punch clients in the face, Rob reminds himself.

“Yes, and I am sorry,” Rob says. “Where was I?”

“We don’t need your attitude,” the husband says, standing. “Come on Daisy.”

Rob holds up his hands and watches the couple leave, certain that they don’t understand how little he gives a fuck. He doesn’t even show them out, even though he’s aware the husband doesn’t have quite enough brains to know how a door works, and the slamming of the door leaves him feeling oddly satisfied.

He tides away the papers he’d scattered across the coffee table for the couple to look at. Half of him wants to throw it all away, but he won’t be surprised if they arrive at his door for their next appointment, so he files everything away in their folder and returns it to the office.

When he comes back to the living room, Felipe’s sat on the sofa in a thick woolen jumper and jeans, watching him. The look doesn’t suit him. Even when it is cold, Felipe chooses hoodies over woolen jumpers. Rob didn’t even know he _had_ a woolen jumper, until now. When he looks closer, he sees it’s his. When he looks even closer, he can see the top of one of the red marks poking out from the top of the jumper. He doesn’t look any closer.

“We need to talk about this,” he says, quietly.

Felipe nods, shifting for Rob to sit beside him. When Rob hesitates to sit, he sees Felipe’s face physically fall.

“Are you ok?” Rob asks, because he doesn’t know where else to begin.

“Think so,” Felipe says, quietly. “How am I supposed to feel?”

“I… I don’t know,” Rob says, not even bothering to lie.

They sit in silence for a while, whilst Rob tries to come up with something else to say.

Felipe speaks before Rob does.

“I do not know what to say,” he says. “Mark was right. Mark was right about everything.”

He’s shaking again, just thinking about it, how accurate Mark was.

“Why didn’t he come in?” Rob asks, because he doesn’t understand that. If Mark’s trying to get money from Fernando, he needs to find out about… whatever happened last night.

Felipe shrugs. “Was trying to wait for him. Was trying to not make things go too far. But then he was still not coming. And Fernando wanted more.” He gulps, thinking about it, glancing up at Rob to make sure he didn’t hate him. The concerned look on Rob’s face should confirm that, but Felipe doesn’t believe it. “Gave him more. Gave him what he wanted. Tried to make things slow down, but could not very well tell Fernando why, could I? And could not make him stop, in case Mark did come? Did not know what else to do. I’m sorry.”

Rob blinks at him, the words taking a while to process in his mind.

“Sorry?” he says, eventually.

Felipe nods.

“What are you sorry for?” he asks, confused.

“Should not have gone as far as I did,” Felipe says.

“You did what you did to protect us. To protect them,” Rob says, one hand clutching Felipe’s and the other gesturing off to ‘them’. “You did it to protect Raffaela and Lucy and the boys. You’ve nothing to be sorry about.”

“I…”

“No,” Rob says. “You did a good thing. You might not have been happy doing it, but you did it for the right reasons. I’m proud of you, ok?”

“Proud?”

“I would never have been able to do that,” Rob says, quietly. “I wouldn’t have the guts to do what you do anyway. I can’t lie to save my life, we both know that. But to lie about _that_. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“Was not _easy_ ,” Felipe says.

“I know,” Rob says, quickly. “I didn’t mean that. I mean, you were able to. You were able to do that. That’s how strong you are.”

Felipe doesn’t say anything, looking down at the hand that Rob is holding. There are tears in his eyes again and Rob knows there’s no way he can get rid of them, but he’s going to try anyway. He pulls Felipe into a hug, running his hands through the shorter man’s hair whilst Felipe’s tears soaked through his shirt.

It’s going to take a while, but they’ll get through this. He’s going to make sure of that.


	14. Fernando, on the other hand...

The last thing Rob wants to do is leave Felipe home alone. He wants to take him back to bed and curl up with him and sleep until it’s all better. But Jenson rings and asks to meet and Felipe insists that he go so, reluctantly, Rob goes.

Rob knows he shouldn’t be annoyed at Jenson. It isn’t his fault Rob was too unobservant to notice the waiter was their hit’s fiancé. But if Jenson had never suggested the restaurant, or if he had never ordered more wine, or if he had offered Rob some and made him look up…

He knows he shouldn’t blame Jenson, and knows he only is because he wants to pretend there’s a chance this isn’t all his fault.

They don’t meet in the restaurant this time, but at a café a couple of streets away from the house. If Rob had been paying attention when they meeting place was agreed, he would be more cheerful as he makes his way to the café. He would know that, more than likely, a deal is going to be done.

Jenson’s already there when Rob arrives, and Rob waves over before ordering tea. He waits at the counter, his mind still back home. There’s too much going on right now for him to think about. He’s hurting too many people.

“Are you alright?” Jenson asks when Rob finally sits down opposite him.

“Fine,” Rob says, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “I’m fine.”

“This thing you need the money for,” Jenson says slowly. “You are coping alright with that, aren’t you? Because if you need any help…”

“We’re coping,” Rob promises. “What do you want, Jenson? I have things to do.”

“Very polite.”

“I try.”

“I have a buyer,” Jenson says. “He’s been following the investigation closely and wants you to know he’s impressed with your work.”

Rob doesn’t say anything, raising the cup of tea to his lips and waiting for Jenson to go on.

Jenson sighs, but continues. “He’s done a deal.”

“Already?”

“I know,” Jenson says. “I was shocked too. So, let’s get down to business. Price.”

“You already gave a price,” Rob says, even though he knew this would happen.

“Situations change,” Jenson says. “I’m thinking we take the zero off the end and replace the one at the front with a seven.”

“They’re worth more than that and you know it,” Rob says.

“Situations change,” Jenson says again.

Rob sighs and begins to wonder how much bargaining power he’ll have.

 

Rob’s been gone a while when there’s a knock at the door. Felipe looks up from where he’s curled up on the sofa, watching trashy day time television but, as he has not yet developed the ability to see through walls, he can’t see who’s at the door. Thinking maybe Rob forgot his keys or clients have come to rearrange appointments, Felipe goes to answer the door. What he isn’t expecting to see is Mark, grinning at him as he pushes his way into the house before Felipe has a chance to stop him.

“Rob in?” he asks, going into the living room whilst Felipe closes the door.

“No,” Felipe says, shutting the door with much less force than he wants to.

“Shame,” Mark says, falling onto the sofa.

“Where were you yesterday?” Felipe asks. He can’t stop himself trembling, his fists unable to uncurl.

“Oh, did I forget to mention? A friend called in sick at work and I had to cover his shift. Sorry.”

The smug grin on his face doesn’t say sorry.

“You let me…” Felipe can’t even say it. The rest of the words get stuck in his throat. “You were never planning on coming in, were you?”

“And there’s me thinking Rob’s the smart one,” Mark says, standing.

“What is wrong with you?”

“Why don’t we call last night your punishment,” Mark says, placing a hand on Felipe’s shoulder. “You were trying to con my husband for millions of pounds, after all.”

Even if Felipe could think of something to say, he wouldn’t be able to spit it out past the lump in his throat. Mark catches his gaze and holds it, the smirk still on his face.

“I hate you,” Felipe says, eventually.

Mark just laughs. “I think I can live with that, mate.”

“I am not doing that again,” Felipe says. “I did what you asked me to do. Am not doing it again.”

“I’m not going to force you,” Mark says. “Fernando, on the other hand…” Mark grins and takes his hand from Felipe shoulder. “I should get going. I guess I’ll see you around.”

Felipe watches Mark go, unable to move.

The door opens, slamming into the wall behind it and it feels like the entire house shakes.

“Mark?”

“Rob,” Mark says, nodding to Rob as he leaves. “Rob’s friend.”

Mark slides between Rob and Jenson and out of the door. Jenson watches him go, confused, as Rob goes into the living room.

“What did he want?”

Felipe shakes his head. “Was nothing,” he says, his voice less than a whisper.

“Felipe?”

“Am going for a shower,” Felipe says, not looking at Rob as he leaves the room.

“But you…”

“Do not care,” Felipe says, marching up the stairs. “Am going for a shower.”

Rob watches him go, disappearing into the bathroom at the top of the stairs. Jenson’s still stood in the hallway, confused.

“I’ll go and get the things,” Rob says, too distracted to be a good host and offer tea.

At the top of the stairs, he pauses, listening to the sound of the shower from through the door.

 

No matter how hard he scrubs, Felipe can still smell Fernando. He can still see the marks left, dark and red and when he thinks about them it feels like they’re throbbing.

_Fernando, on the other hand…_

He looks at himself in the mirror, the water running in the background covering any sobs he might let escape, but he forces him to remain silent. Rob cannot hear.

_Fernando on the other hand… Fernando on the other hand…_

Rob’s not even surprised that Jenson has the exact amount of money. He knew he had no negotiating power when he went into the café, and there would be no need to wonder around with more cash than necessary.

Rob waits for the fence to leave before counting out the money properly, stalling himself. This needs to be done, he tells himself, but he knows it can wait.

The money’s all there and that doesn’t surprise Rob either.

He phones Romain and gives them the price, and the Frenchman says he’ll come over the next day. Rob counts the money again, just to be sure, just to give himself a little bit of time to think of something else to say.

But there isn’t anything.


	15. Do not be stupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, this isn't a happy chapter.   
> Added a tag. This is very much more attempted than actual (does not get far in the slightest) , but I felt it needed tagging just in case.   
> It is just this chapter and you can probably skip over it if you want to.   
> Anyway, hope you enjoy. :)

The silence is making Rob feel sick, but he doesn’t know what to say. They spent the evening on opposite sides of the table at dinner, or at opposite sides of the sofa whilst the TV played with neither of them watching it, or on opposite sides of the bed, the gap between them always cold and uninviting. When Rob tries to touch him, Felipe flinches away. Rob doesn’t try again after that.

 

The next morning is as cold as the evening before. Rob pretends to be asleep whilst Felipe dresses, knowing Felipe still doesn’t want him to see the marks on his skin. He waits until Felipe’s left for work before he gets up, hating himself for not saying anything and hating himself even more every moment that passes.

There are no clients again today. They only have five days to get Lucy and the others out and he doesn’t want to be distracted any more than he already is. Everyone who did have an appointment has been phoned and rescheduled – not that Rob has any plans of sticking around once everyone he cares about is safe.

Romain, Jev, and Dan are coming round, later, to collect their money and to begin whatever plan they have concocted.

The two weeks they’ve been given have flown by, and Rob knows they’re no closer to getting everyone safe than they were when they got the email, but they can start now.

 

Fernando’s already at work when Felipe comes in. He grins hello and offers coffee, but Felipe shakes his head, throwing his coat over the back of his chair and settling down behind the desk.

_Boiler for number sixteen. Sort out the boiler for number sixteen. Focus on that. It needs doing and we are going to be in trouble if it isn’t done soon._

“I missed you yesterday,” Fernando says, quietly, and Felipe knows he’s watching him work but he’s trying to ignore it.

“Was my day off,” Felipe says.

“The meeting went well,” Fernando says. “Looks like the business will be expanding, thanks to you.”

“Will be lots more broken boilers to sort out then,” Felipe says, still not looking up from the computer.

“Felipe?”

Fernando’s stood on the other side of the desk again and when Felipe looks up the concern is clear on his face.

“About the other night,” he starts.

“I was stupid,” Felipe jumps in. “Should never have happened. I love Rob. And you love Mark. It was just a mistake. It should never have happened.”

“It did not feel like a mistake to me, Felipe,” Fernando says.

“I love Rob,” Felipe says.

“And I love Mark,” Fernando says. “Does not mean the other night was nothing. Please, Felipe.”

He takes Felipe’s hand away from the keyboard but Felipe snatches it away.

 _Fernando, on the other hand_ …

“It was a mistake, Fernando,” Felipe says, slowly. “It cannot happen again.”

“But you want it to.”

“I don’t.”

“Is not what you were saying the other night,” Fernando reminds him.

“The other night I was being stupid,” Felipe snaps. “I should never have stayed late. I should never have done any of that and I hate myself for doing it. I am sorry, Fernando, but this is how things are.”

“Well,” Fernando says, the disgust clear on his face. “Maybe if you feel that way, you should just leave.”

“What?”

“Do not need you here,” Fernando says, stepping away from the desk. “Maybe you should go.”

Felipe laughs, standing. “If you need me here to fuck me more than you do to run your business, you really are desperate.”

He takes his coat from the back of the chair and pulls it on as he goes to leave. Fernando grabs his wrist before he can leave.

“Do not be stupid,” he says.

“Fernando…” Felipe doesn’t know what he’s going to say next, but anything that comes to mind is gone when Fernando pulls him closer, forcing his lips onto Felipe’s.

Felipe tries to pull away but there’s now one hand on his arm, the other on his waist.

“Do not be stupid,” Fernando says again.

“Please, Fernando, do not…”

Felipe manages to pull away and falls back into the wall behind him. Before he can blink, Fernando is blocking his escape, both hands on his shoulders, pinning him to the wall. Felipe’s barely drawn breath when Fernando’s lips join his again, his tongue forcing its way inside his mouth.

He screws his eyes shut, but he can still feel Fernando, their bodies pressed together, Fernando’s hands sliding from his shoulders and back down to his waist.

“Fernando.”

“You wanted this the other day,” Fernando reminds him, pulling their lips apart for a moment.

“Fernando?”

Neither of them heard the office door open, but Mark’s voice made Fernando jump away.

“Mark.”

Mark’s eyes flick between Fernando and Felipe. “What are you doing?”

“I can… I can explain,” Fernando tries.

“I will just…” Felipe slides along the wall, still shaking. He’s too scared to even glare at Mark, who’s doing a pretty good impression of somebody distraught that he’s caught his husband and his assistant together. “Go.”

“Felipe wait,” Fernando tries, but the scowl he gets from Mark stops him from saying anymore.

Mark waits for the door to slam shut before he starts yelling at Fernando, but Felipe can hear it through the door. He holds onto the wall as he makes his way down the corridor, hoping the journey home will blur out like last time. There’s still the phantom touch of Fernando’s hands on his hips, making him stumble a few times as he makes his way out of the building.

It’s freezing outside. Winter is definitely beginning to kick in. But Felipe doesn’t feel that. By the time he gets to the car, it feels like his legs have turned to lead. He sits in the car with the door closed for a while, just trying to calm down.

It’s ok now.

“Hello?”

He hasn’t realised he’s even made a phone call until he hears Rob’s voice in his ear. He holds the phone tighter until it’s digging into his hand, the other hand waiting on the steering wheel.

“Felipe?”

Something that was supposed to be a word pushes its way up Felipe’s throat, but it’s nothing more than a whimpered moan.

“Are you alright?” Rob asks.

Felipe shakes his head, wiping the tears that are beginning to form in his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Right, where are you?” Rob asks. He doesn’t have to see to know Felipe’s answer. “I’m coming to get you.”

“Am at work,” Felipe manages to croak. “In the car park.”

“Don’t go anywhere,” Rob says. “I’m on my way now.”


	16. Does it Feel Like it's Helping?

The passenger side door opening makes Felipe jump, but when he sees it’s Rob he settles.

“What happened?” Rob asks, wiping the trails of tears on Felipe’s face with his thumb.

Felipe shook his head, pushing Rob’s hand away to rub his eyes with the heels of his hands. He rubs hard enough to see dots. Rob’s hand is on his back now, the touch making his stomach roll, but he can’t find the words to tell him to stop.

“Felipe?”

“Want to go home,” Felipe says, quietly.

“No.”

“What?” He stops rubbing his eyes to look up at Rob. “Why?”

“Because we’ll go home and you’ll go for a shower and I’ll try to think of something to say and neither of us will say anything and we need to _talk_ about this Felipe,” Rob says.

“Do not need to do anything.”

“Then how do you expect me to help you?” Rob snaps. He tries not to. He tries be understanding. But he can’t stop himself.

“Cannot help,” Felipe snaps back. “Have already done enough.”

He goes to get out of the car but Rob grabs his wrist and stops him. It’s only then Rob notices how red his wrists are.

“Felipe… did he hurt you?”

Felipe shakes his head, but now Rob’s peering at the bruise that has begun to form on his wrist, so faint he can barely see it.

“What did he do?” Rob asks.

“Nothing,” Felipe says, quietly. “Mark came in before he could do anything.”

“But he was going to?”

“I don’t know,” Felipe says, but Rob doesn’t believe him. He goes to get out of the car and this time it’s Felipe’s turn to stop him.

“He needs to know he can’t do that kind of thing and get away with it,” Rob snaps, but Felipe shakes his head.

“Please, I just want to go home, Rob,” he says. “I just want to pretend this never happened.”

Rob sighs and falls back into the chair. “Alright. But I’m not letting you drive.”

 

Romain, Jev, and Dan are waiting outside when they get back. Rob groans silently. He needs to sort this out. He knows he does. But he needs Felipe to talk to him as well, and that isn’t going to happen whilst they have visitors. Dan is as cheerful as ever when Rob slides past them to let the party inside, but Romain and Jev both look annoyed. They follow Rob inside without saying a word.

When Rob doesn’t immediately offer them tea, they know something’s wrong.

Felipe disappears upstairs without an explanation and Rob watches him go with a small sigh.

Jev doesn’t even notice he pulls Dan closer to him.

“I have your money,” Rob says.

“I thought you said two weeks,” Romain points out.

“That’s what I thought,” Rob says. “But I have it now. Do you want it or not?”

Romain and Jev exchange concerned expressions. There’s no way they’re going to be able to negotiate today.

“We will take a look,” Romain says.

 

Felipe waits at the top of the stairs until he’s sure the others have left. He can hear Rob clattering about in the kitchen, making dinner, and he knows Rob’s right. They won’t talk about it. They haven’t spoken about it yet and they’re not going to now.

When Felipe comes down the stairs, the lights are all off. He peers into the darkness, able to make out the familiar shapes of the furniture but nothing else.

“Rob?”

“I thought it might help,” Rob says, his voice coming from the kitchen and, when Felipe looks over, he can make out the man in the doorway.

“How?” Felipe asks.

If the lights were on, Felipe would have seen Rob blush. As it is, Rob can keep the burning in his cheeks a secret.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “Does it feel like it’s helping?”

Felipe shrugs. He doesn’t know either.

Rob blindly feels his way across the room, knocking the corners of tables and chairs and making Felipe smile. He eventually reaches Felipe and, after a couple of seconds of swearing at the table, sighs, places his hands gently on Felipe’s shoulders, before sliding them down his arms and holding his hands.

“I’m a coward,” Rob says, quietly.

“Rob-.”

“No, let me finish,” Rob says, looking down at their hands. “I am. I hang around in the background and only ever get my hands dirty when there’s no one else about. I can’t even talk about the things that scare me. Not even to you or Lucy.” He lets go of Felipe’s hands and begins to undo the buttons of his shirt. “Tell me to stop if you want me to. And I will stop.”

He slowly, carefully, undoes the buttons all the way down Felipe’s shirt, speaking as he does.

“It’s why I haven’t been able to talk about this,” he says. “I wanted to. But I don’t know how. And I’m scared of going wrong. Of saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing.”

The final button pops out of its hole and Rob waits a moment before pushing the fabric off of Felipe’s shoulders and taking his hands again. They stand in silence for a moment, Felipe trying to read Rob’s face but it’s too dark.

“That’s why I need you,” Rob continues. “That’s why I’ve always needed you. You’ve never really cared if you’re scared or not. There are more important things. And I know you’re scared. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t told me. I can tell.”

He lets go of Felipe’s hands again.

“Tell me to stop if you want me to,” he says again. “And I will stop.”

He takes one of Felipe’s arms in his hand, raising it and, as delicately as possible, presses a kiss to the bruise he knows is forming on his wrist. In the darkness, he finds the other marks Fernando has left on him, gently kissing them. He can feel Felipe shaking beneath him, but the smaller man doesn’t try to stop him, and so Rob doesn’t stop. He finds all the marks, carefully pulling Felipe’s trousers from his waist to claim the bruises there as well. Once he has finished, he stands again, holding Felipe’s cheek in one hand and his hand in the other.

“Now, when you see them, you think of me,” Rob says, quietly. “You think of how brave you are, how proud I am of you, and how much I love you.”

He steps back and Felipe falls into him, trying to keep the touch.

Rob smiles. “I’ll go heat up dinner.”

“You haven’t eaten?” Felipe asks.

Rob shakes his head.

A smile breaks onto Felipe’s face. “Thank you.”


	17. Don't go in

They have four days until Hamilton’s deadline.

 

Felipe’s shaking as he pulls on a fresh shirt in the morning. He knows Rob’s watching him, and he’s trying to put that thought out of his mind. Rob’s told him that it shouldn’t bother him, and he’s trying to not let it, but it does.

“You’re not going to work today,” Rob says.

“Have to.”

“You’re not,” Rob says, sitting up from where he was still lying in bed. “You don’t need to anymore. We’re getting the money from Mark. You’ve every reason to leave and no reason to go back. Don’t go in, Felipe, please.”

“Need to go in,” Felipe says. “Have left documents in the draw of my desk. Things Fernando cannot know I have.”

Rob frowns. “What kind of things?”

“The things you said we could not keep here,” Felipe said. “And then there are photos and things I would like to bring home. Need to go and collect them.”

“I’ll go,” Rob says, pushing the duvet off of himself and getting out of the bed.

“Do not have…”

“I do,” Rob says. “This is my mess, and so far I’ve just let you clean it up. Let me do this, Felipe.”

Felipe sighs. “Alright. But do not… do not do anything… stupid, Rob, please. Fernando will probably not even be there. Just go in and get the things, yes?”

“Alright,” Rob says, but he doesn’t promise.

 

The office block where Alonso’s is located is a maze and Rob gets lost more than once. He’s been to the office only a couple of times before and he’d thought he would be able to remember the way he had come, but he can’t. Eventually, with some help from some workers from another office, Rob finds the right room. He brings out Felipe’s keys, but finds the door already unlocked.

Fernando has made it in then.

The Spaniard looks up when Rob enters, his eyes flicking behind him for Felipe, but there is no one else. Rob closes the door behind him and goes to Felipe’s desk, fully planning on ignoring Fernando.

“What are you doing?” Fernando croaks.

“Getting Felipe’s stuff,” Rob says, placing the box he’s brought on top of the desk and beginning to pile things in.

“He’s leaving?”

“You’re not surprised, are you?”

“He has to give notice,” Fernando says. “Two weeks. Cannot just leave.”

“I think, after what you did yesterday, he can do whatever the hell he likes,” Rob snaps.

“He has told you about yesterday?” Fernando asks. “Did he tell you about the other night as well? Working late. Did he tell you what we were really doing? Is not as innocent in all of this as you seem to think.”

“He told me,” Rob says. “He told me what happened and that does not give you the right to do what you did yesterday.”

“What I did yesterday?” Fernando asks. “My marriage is over.”

“Good,” Rob says. “It’s what you deserve.”

“You think you know everything, but maybe you should come down from your high horse. He wanted it too,” Fernando says. “Maybe next time you should think of this when he comes crying to you, looking for sympathy when things do not go exactly the way he has planned them.”

Rob drops the last of the papers into the box and comes out from behind the desk, grabbing the front of Fernando’s shirt and pushing him against the nearest wall.

“You have chosen the wrong day to piss me off, mate,” Rob snaps. “You have no idea what the other night was about. Nothing to reference it from. Do you know what it feels like to be _wanted_ , Alonso? For someone to _want_ you? Can you tell the difference?”

Rob’s shaking, but not as much as Fernando. Wide, caramel coloured eyes watch Rob’s, waiting for him to do something. Rob can feel Fernando’s heartbeat beneath his hand, racing faster than he’s ever felt a heart go. He’s scared, Rob realises. It makes him smirk.

“You’re a pathetic little man, Alonso, who’ll very soon have no money and run his business into the ground,” he says. “Nobody wants to touch you now and nobody’s going to want to touch you then, either.”

He lets go of Fernando and, taking the box with him, leaves. That was a lot more restrained than he’d thought would happen.

 

Felipe goes over the plan Romain and Jev have come up with again, trying to get his head in the right place. It’s fairly simple, and he’s worried it’s _too_ simple. They know what they’re doing, of course. The Frenchmen are the best in this business and everyone knows it, but it doesn’t stop Felipe worrying. If this does go wrong, there’s a chance he’ll never see his wife and son again. He doesn’t want to risk that. He’s already missed too much and he doesn’t want to miss anymore.

Thinking about the rescue just makes him worried, so he decides to get started on lunch instead, only it’s been weeks since someone last went shopping and the few things that are left in the fridge are the wrong colour. He could go shopping. That was what any normal person would do. But the thought of that, for reasons Felipe can’t quite figure out, seems daunting.

Maybe it’s best to wait until Rob gets back, he thinks. Rob can get back and go shopping. They probably won’t even need much. Just enough to last the next couple of days.

No, he should be able to go shopping. It’s half an hour in the presence of other people. He should be able to cope with that.

A little annoyed that he’s doubting himself, Felipe pulls on shoes and a coat, leaves a note for Rob to let him know where he’s gone – the idiot’s left his phone at home – and goes shopping.

As soon as he steps out onto the street, all eyes are on him. Everybody’s watching him as he walks down the street, he’s sure of it. He doesn’t know why. He can’t think of a reason for them to be staring, watching him walk down the street. He shudders and quickens his pace, but that just makes them stare more. By the time he gets to the shop, he can feel the sick rising in his throat and he hold onto a shelf out of dizziness.

The shop is quiet, thankfully, and the man behind the counter is more invested in the football match on the TV than making conversation with the customers.

Felipe takes one of the baskets from the tower beside the door and starts the shop. This can’t be so bad…

 

When Rob gets back it takes him about five minutes of wondering around, confused, to find the note. He goes to the fridge, looking for proof that a shop was needed, and he finds it in the rotting bananas and gone off milk. It’s a good job one of them still has their head on their shoulders.

He falls unceremoniously onto the sofa, knowing he’s going to need to go through the box at some point, but he just needs five minutes to rest his head. Five minutes without worrying about anything. Five minutes-

There’s a knock at the door.

Grumbling, Rob gets up to answer it. If this is a client, they can do one, he thinks, opening the door and drawing breath to begin his “fuck off” speech.

It’s Mark.

He grins at Rob. “Felipe in?”

“Piss off.”

Mark does the exact opposite of “piss off”, pushing past Rob into the house.

“He isn’t in?” he calls through from the living room, having found the note Rob left on the coffee table. “That’s a shame. I suppose I’m going to have to talk to you.”

“What do you want?” Rob asks, slamming the door shut.

“Take it you know about this little plan of mine,” Mark says, his voice still light and cheerful. “Well, looks like I’m getting a divorce. Probably one of the shortest marriages I’ve ever had. Thanks for that.”

“What do you want?” Rob asks, again.

“I just thought I’d drop by and let you know,” Mark says. “The divorce should take a couple of weeks, maybe a little longer. Then you can have your money.”

“A couple of weeks,” Rob repeats. He doesn’t plan on still being around in a couple of weeks.

“These things don’t happen overnight,” Mark says. “Fernando will try and fight it. He’ll get a good solicitor.”

A couple of weeks. That might still give them enough time to go ahead with Alonso. Rob glances down at the papers that are still in the top of the box. They’re ready to go. All they need is the right mental space.

“Where is the little whore anyway?” Mark asks. “I was hoping to congratulate him on his fine performance.”

“What did you call him?”

“A whore,” Mark repeats. “Someone who has sex for money. That’s what he did, didn’t he?”

Rob dives at Mark, pushing both of them over the sofa and onto the floor. Mark’s still laughing, even when his head gives a heavy thud against the floor and Rob is kneeling over him.

“Careful,” Mark says. “Wouldn’t want to add assault to robbery, would we?”

Rob glares at him, trying to come up with a witty remark, but his mind goes blank. Mark’s right, of course. Rob’s under no illusion that the Australian wouldn’t go to the police, even after what Felipe has done for him. Still angry, maybe angrier than before, Rob stands. He doesn’t offer to help Mark up.

“Note to self,” Mark says, standing. “Sore subject.”

“Don’t you _ever_ call him that again.”

“And what are you going to do?” Mark asks, smug grin _still_ in place.

“Get out,” Rob says, his voice barely more than a whisper

Mark holds up his hands, innocently. “I’m just stating the facts, mate. Not trying to steal anyone’s money. Not getting fucked by any married men. Looks like I’m the good guy here, actually.”

“Out,” Rob yells, and Mark’s grin falls a moment, but then it’s back.

“Ok, I’m going,” Mark says going into the hall. “Say hello to the who- to Felipe for me.”

Rob slams the door shut after him.

Fuck Mark, and Alonso. _Couple of weeks. Maybe longer._ They’ve enough time to get the money from them both. All Rob needs is for Felipe to want to go ahead with it.


	18. Let's get started

Felipe returns with bags full of food and a proud grin on his face. He’s done it. Whatever he had been scared about, it didn’t happen. Maybe they had all been staring, but none of them spoke to him. There had been no confrontation. Nothing.

The grin on his face is contagious and Rob can’t help but mimic it. “I could have done the shopping,” he says, helping Felipe put the few things away.

“Was just sitting at home doing nothing,” Felipe says. If he’s honest, he’s glad he did it. He’s glad he got out the house, even for half an hour. He feels better. He feels like he can _do_ things.

“Fernando was at the office,” Rob says.

Felipe deflates. All the happiness and the good feelings go. He’s empty again.

“And?” he asks, trying to keep his voice level.

“I told him you weren’t coming into work anymore,” Rob says. “He wasn’t impressed, but I think he can live with it.”

“Alright,” Felipe says. He’d been worried Rob would do something stupid. He’s not a violent man, usually. But when there’s something he cares about, everything goes out of the window and he can sometimes turn into something Felipe doesn’t even recognise. It scares him a little.

“Mark came around too,” Rob says, closing the cupboard door when everything that needs to be inside it is inside.

“Really?”

Rob nods. “It’ll take a couple of weeks for the divorce to go through. Maybe more.”

“We cannot stay that long,” Felipe says.

“No,” Rob agrees. “But that does give us enough time to take the money ourselves.”

“What?”

“We have everything we need,” Rob says. “It wouldn’t even be that hard, I don’t think. We have all the bank account details. We could go online and do it now, I think.”

Felipe stares at him, mouth open slightly. “We could do it online?”

“I think,” Rob says. “All his money is in one account or another. We could at least go and see.”

“Why haven’t we already done it?” Felipe asked.

“I was waiting until we had the jewels sold and then we had an escape route,” Rob says. “Then Hamilton happened.”

“And now?”

“We don’t have the money from the jewels,” Rob says. “But we are going to have to leave once Romain and Jev have rescued Lucy and the others anyway. We may as well take what we can from Alonso whilst we can. It’s the least he deserves after what he’s done. Mark too.”

“We can do this now?” Felipe asks.

Rob grins, glad Felipe seems to be going ahead with this. “We can do it now.”

 

They use the computer in Rob’s office, because Rob insists it’s faster, and load up the webpages for Alonso’s personal and business accounts, Rob making sure Felipe knows it’s because of him that they can do this.

The details from the papers Felipe has acquired grant them access into the accounts, but the success stops there.

The money’s been moved.

Someone, Rob’s pretty sure he knows who, knew they were coming. Almost all the money from both accounts has been withdrawn, the day after the wedding, according to the dates shown on both accounts.

“Now what?” Felipe asks.

Rob takes a deep breath. He hasn’t thought that far ahead. Now what do they do?

“Mark will have taken the money out,” Rob says. “He’s hidden it somewhere. Fernando would have to know about it. It’s his account. Is there a safe or something at the office?”

Felipe shakes his head. “There is never any money at the offices other than what we put into the tea jar.”

Rob sighs. “And I guess that isn’t very much. Where else?”

“At their house?” Felipe suggests.

Rob shakes his head. “Mark would want it somewhere he could access it if he needed to.”

“The restaurant?” Felipe suggests.

Rob’s about to come up with a reason why Mark wouldn’t keep the money there when he stops. Mark could very well keep the money at the restaurant. The owner would have to know him well enough for that, but Rob can’t think that’s much of a problem.

“Maybe,” Rob says.

“Really?” Felipe hadn’t thought it a very good suggestion.

“We would have to find out for sure before we broke in,” Rob asks. “I think Jenson knows the owner pretty well. I could ask him for another favour.”

“Is there anywhere else it could be?” Felipe asks. “In case it is not at the restaurant and we know where to try next.”

Rob thinks for a moment, but the only thing he can come up with is if they have a security box somewhere, and they would have heard about that.

“I’ll phone Jenson,” Rob says, because he can’t think of anywhere else.

“When are we doing this?” Felipe asks. “Cannot hang around afterwards. Mark will know it is us.”

“We do it when we go to get Lucy, Raffaela and the kids,” Rob says. “Any earlier and we can’t stay here because Mark will be after us. Any later and we can’t stay here because Hamilton will be after us. We’ll have to do it on the night.”

Felipe doesn’t like the sound of that. There’s enough that can go wrong that night without a break in as well.

“Don’t worry,” Rob says, noting the look on Felipe’s face. “We’ll do the proper checks. We’ll go through this one like we do every one. And this time we will check for dogs as well.”

Felipe nods. Rob’s right. They’ve done things in worse conditions than this. They’ve had more to risk than this. It didn’t exactly go well, but they have the experience.

“I’ll phone Jenson now,” Rob says. “Want to make a start on dinner?”

 

“Rob, I can’t tell you something like that,” Jenson says. “Like, the owner’s a pretty nice guy. I don’t want to do anything to hurt him.”

“This isn’t hurting him, Jenson,” Rob sighs. “It’s hurting the scumbag waiter that works for him. And, strictly speaking, _you’re_ not doing anything. Just telling us if something is there or not.”

“I’m not doing it, Rob,” Jenson says. “What’s this guy even done to you anyway?”

Rob tries to sum up everything Mark has done into a short phrase that tells Jenson absolutely nothing, but all he can think of is a load of abuse which doesn’t quite show how much he hates the Australian.

“He’s married to our hit,” Rob says, eventually. “And very soon he’s going to be divorced from our hit and have taken a large amount of our money.”

“I thought you said this wasn’t about the money,” Jenson laughs and if Rob wasn’t desperate, he’d hang up the phone there and then.

“It _isn’t_ ,” Rob insists, but he knows he can never tell Jenson what this is really about. “Please, Jenson.”

“Alright,” Jenson says. “I’ll give the guy a call and tell you what he says. No promises though. And you owe me.”

“Of course,” Rob says, putting the phone down before Jenson can say anything else.

There’s a clatter from the kitchen and a small moan, and Rob burst out laughing.

“Are you using the pots on the top shelf again?” he calls through.

“If you are not going to help, do not say anything at all,” Felipe calls back.

Rob takes that as a yes.

 

Jenson texts halfway through dinner. They’ve finally hit some luck. The money’s there.


	19. Checking Out The Restaurant

Felipe wakes the next morning to find Rob watching him sleep. He smiles, sleepily, for the first time in ages not woken by a text message, and rubs the sleep from his eyes.

“Good morning,” Rob says, quietly, leaning down for a kiss that Felipe does his best to not flinch away from.

“Need to find the plans for the restaurant,” Felipe says. “Find out what is going on there and…”

Rob silences him with another kiss, grinning. “Later. We have all day.”

“Need to do it today, though,” Felipe says. “Tomorrow night you go in, yes?”

“You’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?” Rob asks.

“A little,” Felipe says. He was awake long after Rob had fallen asleep the night before, running things over in his head. If Romain, Jev, and Dan were going in for the families on Wednesday, in only two days’ time, they would need to get into the restaurant Tuesday night and travel down to where they had been hiding straight after. There would be barely enough time to do anything.

“Calm down,” Rob says, swiping Felipe’s hair off of his face. “It’ll be ok.”

“Do not know this,” Felipe says. “For sure, will possibly not be that good security but…”

“Do you really want to talk business in bed?” Rob asks, grinning.

Felipe knew that grin. “Rob, don’t.”

“Don’t what?” Rob says, poking Felipe in the side and making him involuntarily spasm. “Don’t what, Felipe?”

Another poke and Felipe’s giggling. “Please, Rob, stop.”

“Stop what, hmm?” Rob’s still grinning. It only takes him seconds to tickle Felipe into a giggling wreck. He can’t say what made him think this was a good idea, but he’s glad he’s done it. He ends up sat on top of the smaller man, watching him calm down once the attack has subsided. He holds both hands in defense of a counter attack, but Felipe isn’t even trying to pull away.

Felipe sighs, the last of the laughter gone, and looks up at Rob. “Will not get to do this once we go back,” he says.

“No,” Rob says, quietly. “We won’t.”

They could. They could do things properly, like Rob is doing with Lucy. But Felipe won’t come out and simply _say_ it to Raffaela. Rob doesn’t know why. He knows she already knows what’s going on. But Felipe won’t admit it. Felipe wants to pretend this is a secret.

“I love you,” Felipe says quietly, knowing what Rob is thinking.

“I love you too,” Rob says. “Come on. Let’s get started on these plans then.”

Rob goes to get off of the bed, but Felipe pulls him back down.

“Thought that could wait?”

 

Getting the plans for the restaurant is easy. They can’t be sure of all the security measures, but Rob’s awful habit of checking for security cameras in any public places he walks into comes in helpful, and he’s able to mark on all the ones he knows.

It still doesn’t look good enough to Felipe, though.

“Cannot go there to see,” he mumbles. “Mark will be there.”

Rob nods. He’s already thought about that and has no idea how they’re going to get around that.

“Could go and say we are there to see him,” Felipe suggests. “Pretend we are there to talk about the divorce.”

Rob looks up at Felipe. He never wants to see Mark again and he can’t imagine Felipe feels anything but the same way.

“Would you mind?” Rob asks. “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

“Cannot think of another way to do it,” Felipe says. “I will be fine, Rob. Promise.”

Rob smiles, but Mark’s words are still clear in his head. He’s glad Felipe went shopping and didn’t have to hear any of that. If Mark’s going to rattle through his speech again, he would rather Felipe wasn’t there.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

Felipe laughs. “I am sure, Rob. It will be ok. You said this, no?”

Rob sighs. He did say that. That didn’t mean he believed it, though. “We should go now. Get in between the lunch and dinner rushes.”  


It’s a nice place, Felipe thinks, as he follows Rob inside. They’re greeted at the door by a waiter – not Mark – and Rob tells them they’re here to see Mark. They can see him waiting tables, waiting his time before the divorce comes through.

“He’s working now,” they’re told. “But if you would like to wait at the bar, order some drinks, I’m sure he can come over in his break.”

“Sure,” Rob says, smiling. He leads Felipe over to the bar area, noting two more security cameras over here that he had not seen before. “Don’t stare at him,” he mutters to Felipe, forcing him to drag his eyes away from Mark.

“Sorry,” Felipe mumbles, pushing himself up onto a stool at the bar. He can’t help but glance over at the Australian every couple of seconds, though. He sees the waiter they had spoken to go over to whisper something in Mark’s ear, and he looks over at them. As soon as he does, Felipe pulls his eyes away. He doesn’t look over again.

The bartender rolls his eyes when Rob orders soft drinks, but serves them the colas anyway before going to find better paying customers to serve.

“We’re here to talk about the divorce,” Rob says, again, even though they must have gone over this plan a million times on the journey here. “To ask him if he has any idea on a definite date we can get the money and if he needs any help with lawyers or anything.”

“Yes, Rob,” Felipe says. “You have said this.”

“I know,” Rob says. “Just making sure you were listening.”

He laughs, and it’s only then Felipe sees how nervous Rob is. Rob doesn’t do this kind of thing. He deals with the criminals, with the Romains and Jevs and Jensons of their job. Felipe’s the one who deals with hits and their friends. Felipe is the actor and, whilst Rob can come up with the most perfect of scenarios for Felipe to act out, he cannot do it himself.

“Will be ok,” Felipe says, squeezing Rob’s hand. “If you are worried then leave things to me, ok?”

“I’m fine,” Rob insists, drinking his drink.

It’s another half an hour before Mark comes over, also playing his part and smiling, although Rob’s not sure if he ever stops smiling.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you two here,” he says. “What’s the matter?”

“We need to talk about the divorce,” Rob says, quickly.

Mark’s eyes flick between Rob and Felipe, not sure whether to believe them or not. Neither of them have really wanted to talk when it’s on his terms. But he nods anyway and waves a hand for them to follow him into the delivery alley way around the back of the restaurant that served as a break area for the staff.

“What about the divorce?” he says.

Rob says nothing, pulling his jacket tighter around himself to shield himself from the cold that the alley way channels.

“What can we do?” Felipe asks.

“What can _you_ do?” Mark asks. “What do you mean?”

“What can we do?” Felipe repeats. “Are guessing that you want this to go through as soon as possible too. Do not want to be waiting around before you find another rich bimbo to marry. We could try to make things go fast for you.”

Mark leans against the wall behind him, arms crossed. “And how would you do that? Ask Fernando _nicely_?”

Felipe shrugs. “Could tell him I will press charges,” he says, crossing his own arms. “Sexual harassment at work and unfair dismissal.”

“You can’t press charges,” Mark says, smirking.

“He does not know this,” Felipe says. “He does not _need_ to know this. Would just threaten it if he does not go through the divorce quickly. Could maybe help you with a lawyer who is not afraid to bend the rules, too.”

Mark falls silent and it’s Felipe’s turn to smirk. His arms fall to his side and Rob takes his hand, rubbing circles into the back of it with his thumb.

“Unfair dismissal?” Mark says, eventually.

Felipe nods. “Said on Saturday there was no point me coming back to work if I was not going to go along with him. Could find somebody who would twist that into an unfair dismissal. Maybe even blackmail?”

Mark nods, thoughtfully. Rob’s impressed. He knows Felipe’s good at what he does. He’s always known that. But seeing it now, seeing Mark struggle after what he’d been like the day before, Rob can’t help but grin.

“Alright,” Mark says, eventually. “I guess we all want our money as soon as possible.”

“I take it you have an eye on the money,” Rob pipes up. “You’re making sure he’s not going to spend it all on expensive wine or something.”

“I’m looking after that,” Mark says. “Making sure _nobody_ gets their hands on it.”

“Right,” Felipe says, knowing Mark knows they’ve already tried to get it. “Do you have a lawyer or would you like to look at one of ours.”

They don’t have a lawyer. They’ve never had a need for one.

“I’d like to see what you have to offer.”

“We will get in touch with him,” Felipe says. “Will phone you when we get him here so he can see everything and we can decide what we are going to do.”

Mark nods. It seems like a safe idea to him. They don’t shake hands, but Mark leads them back through the backrooms of the restaurant and into the main dining area.

“I’ll hear from you soon, then,” he says.

“For sure,” Felipe says. “And then we can negotiate a price, too.”

“I don’t think so,” Mark says.

“We will talk about it,” Felipe says, even though he knows Mark has zero intentions to talk about it, the exact same number Felipe has.

“Come on,” Rob says, nodding to Mark as he pulls Felipe out of the restaurant. “Thank you,” he says, quietly.

“We are a team,” Felipe reminds him. “I set things up, you rob them. I get us away, you get us the money. You do not have to do everything.”

“Thank you,” Rob says, again.


	20. Two days and no back up plan

“Did you get everything?” Felipe checks when they arrive back at the house. By the time he has his coat off, Rob already has the plans laid out on the dining table and is drawing more crosses on the diagram. Felipe takes that as a “yes”.

“As much as I could,” Rob says. He can’t say he was completely focused on the task he was supposed to be doing, but he’s pretty sure he got most of the cameras in the restaurant. “I might go back at closing and wonder around the outside. Check for dogs.”

“Difficulty?” Felipe asks.

Rob shrugs. “Shouldn’t be too bad. I mean, it’s a restaurant, not a jewelry store. The security is designed for a restaurant too, so it shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Will remind you of this when you are bragging about how hard it is,” Felipe says, grinning. He looks down at the plans Rob’s still scribbling on. “You know where the money is?”

Rob taps the pencil on a box in one corner. “Or possible here,” he says, picking another room and tapping there too. “I can’t tell for sure, but these are the two most likely options.”

“How likely is most likely?” Felipe asks. He doesn’t really mind going for jobs with a little risk, but they have enough to worry about as it is without not knowing where the money is.

“Right,” Rob sits down. “ _This_ is the only “staff only” parts of the building,” he says, drawing a faint line around the small amount of non-public areas. “So it’s definitely somewhere in here. And it’s somewhere that most of the workers wouldn’t be able to get to. Probably nowhere we walked through, so that crosses off these and these.” There are very few rooms on the plan now, and Rob rattles off his reasons for believing the money could not be in any of the other rooms. Felipe nods, slowly, not always understanding, but Rob’s convinced.

“Alright,” he says. “And alarm system.”

“Easy,” Rob says, although he said that about the jewelry store. Felipe doesn’t even have to say anything for Rob to know what he’s thinking. “This time it _is_ ,” he insists. “I bet even you could do it.”

“Would rather not risk it,” Felipe says. “But you are sure?”

“I’m sure,” Rob says.

Felipe looks down at the plans, glad he isn’t the one going inside. He doesn’t even know what half the symbols Rob’s drawing on the plans actually mean, but he trusts Rob. That’s why they work. They’re good at what they do and they both know it.

“I’ll make dinner,” he says, leaving Rob to dissect the plans and ready himself as he always does before a break in.

“No pans off of the top shelf,” Rob says.

 

Felipe wakes in the middle of the night.

“We’ve only got two days.”

He can’t remember what in his dream had made him remember, but now it’s hit him. They only have two days until Hamilton does whatever he has planned. Two days to get them out and into safety. It isn’t enough time.

Rob groans, sleepily. “What’s the matter now?”

“We only have two days until Lewis wants his money,” Felipe says again.

“It’s ok,” Rob insists, rolling over to face Felipe “Go back to sleep.”

“What if something goes wrong?” Felipe asks. “We have no time to make a back up plan, Rob, this needs to go right.”

“Yes,” Rob agrees, wrapping his arms around Felipe and pulling him closer. “And it will go right if you get a proper night’s sleep.”

“But _Rob_ …”

“No buts,” Rob says, before pressing a kiss into the back of Felipe’s head. “Go to sleep. I’ll go through things in the morning. They’re not going to go wrong. I promise.”

Felipe huffs, crossing his arms grumpily and trying to remember what made him wake up.

“Are you sleeping?” Rob asks after a couple of seconds of silence.

“No,” Felipe mumbles.

Rob sighs, resting his head in the crook of Felipe’s neck. “Everything is going to be ok. I promise. And not just because I want everything to be ok. I am going to make it ok. I am going to make sure nothing happens to them. I’m going to make sure we do our jobs properly, and the French do theirs. I promise you. Every little thing will go to plan. We are not going to need a backup plan.”

Felipe hums, not sure if he believes Rob or not, but too tired to argue right now. It isn’t long before Rob goes heavy and he’s asleep again, and it isn’t long after that when Felipe does the same.

 

“So everything’s ok there?” Rob asks, doing his best to not wake Felipe, but the line was bad and Romain could barely hear him.

“As ok as to be expected,” Romain replies. “We are able to see where Lewis has his men. You were right, Rob, there are only the two of them watching the house. I do not think they knew that we are here yet.”

“Yet?”

“They will probably not know that we are here until we are gone,” Romain says.

“Probably?”

The Frenchman isn’t filling him with lots of confidence.

“We have begun the dig yesterday,” Romain continues, ignoring the question. “It should not take long before we are in their basement. Then it is clear from then on.”

“I thought you said this was going to be difficult,” Rob says.

“I thought you said two weeks,” Romain says.

Felipe sits up, confused as to who Rob’s talking to whilst he’s still half asleep. He sees the phone and things click into place, but the half conversation he hears doesn’t give him much of a clue as to who it is. He guesses Romain, as he doesn’t really know anyone else he would be talking to. Still half asleep, Felipe pushes himself out of bed, looking for his own phone.

More messages from Fernando wait for him.

_Please phone when you get this. We need to talk._

_I know you’re getting these. We need to talk about what happened, Felipe._

_I have decided to leave Mark. It was not going to work anyway. He does not understand like you do. Please answer the phone._

Felipe sighs, deleting the messages one by one. He wonders, for a moment, what will happen to the business when they’re finished with Fernando. There’s no way the Spaniard can cope on his own with it anyway, let alone without any money. Felipe’s got a feeling it’s going to be a long time before number sixteen’s boiler is ever fixed.

“We’re coming down tonight,” Rob says. “We’re getting our money from Alonso and then driving down.”

“What time do you think you will be arriving around?” Romain asks.

“I’m not sure,” Rob says. The restaurant doesn’t close until half past ten, and Rob’s going to leave a couple of hours after that to make sure everyone’s out of the building. It’s a couple of hours drive from then on to where Lucy, Raffaela, and the kids are living. “Early morning.”

“Is not ideal,” Romain says. “You are sure you cannot come any earlier.”

“I’m sure,” Rob says.

“Very well then, if we do not have a choice,” Romain says. “We will wait up for you then, and see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Rob says, ending the call. He turns to find Felipe attempting to get dressed. Most of their things are packed up already, ready to go as soon as they need to. Apparently Felipe hasn’t left out enough socks. “You should go back to sleep. It’s going to be a long night,” Rob says.

“It will be fine,” Felipe insists. “You can sleep for half of the journey and then I can sleep the other half. We’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Rob asks. “How did you sleep last night?”

“It was fine. I am sure, Rob,” Felipe says, smiling, but it can’t hide the fear in his eyes.

“As long as you’re sure,” Rob says. He doesn’t know what other thing they can do if Felipe isn’t sure. He was right, Rob realises, in his moment of panic in the middle of the night. They have no back up plan. There are about a million and one things that could go wrong, tiny little things that they have no control over, and if any of that happens then there’s nothing they can do against Lewis.

“Get back in bed,” he says, trying to push the dark thoughts out of his mind and focus on what’s going on now. “Breakfast in bed. It might be the last time for a while.”

“Soggy cornflakes?” Felipe laughs, and Rob can tell he’s trying to do the same. “I think I will pass.”

“My cornflakes are to die for,” Rob declares, grinning. “Now back in bed.”

Felipe sits obediently on the bed and watches Rob go to leave. “And bring the plans up with you too,” he says, quickly. “You said you are going to go over them with me?”

“Felipe?”

“I want to make sure,” Felipe says. He usually leaves all the planning to Rob. After all, he doesn’t even go into the building most of the time. Why does it matter to him any of the ins and outs of the job, as long as he knows where the building is? This time he wants to know, though. This time, he needs proof that Rob’s assurances that everything’s going to be ok are real.

“I’ll bring them up,” Rob says.


	21. Halfway There

By the time they head out of the house for the final time, Felipe’s as sure as he can be that they’re going to be able to do this. Even though he didn’t understand everything Rob told him, he said everything with such confidence that Felipe has to believe he knows what he’s doing. Felipe puts it down to the pessimistic voice in his head that he’s so worried.

After all, it’s just a normal restaurant, as Rob has tried to tell him countless times. Besides the stacks of money that Mark has moved in there, there’s nothing unusual about this place. Why would they have trouble getting in and out of there?

The house where Raffaela, Lucy, and the boys are staying is more of a problem. It’s supposed to be secure so nobody can get in without them wanting them to, making it more difficult for Romain, Jev, and Dan. But the Frenchmen are the best in the business, as Felipe keeps telling himself, and tells himself again as they leave the house. If anyone can do it, it’s the Frenchmen.

“Are you alright?” Rob asks.

“Fine,” Felipe says, heading for the car.

“Are you sure?” Rob asks. “Because, if not…”

He trails off. There’s not really anything else they can do, as Felipe has already pointed out.

“I’m fine,” he says again. “You have nothing to worry about.”

They don’t speak on the way to the restaurant. It’s nothing unusual, as neither of them usually speak on the way to jobs, but it still makes Felipe feel uneasy. He stops down the street from the restaurant, as is the plan, and waits for Rob to get out.

“Are _you_ alright?” Felipe asks, when Rob doesn’t get out.

“Yeah,” Rob says, quickly. “Yeah, of course.”

“Do you want to get started then?” Felipe asks.

Rob looks down the road at the restaurant, now as dark as the buildings that surround it as it’s so long past closing time. The street is deserted. They’ve nothing to worry about from the outside.

“You know I love you, don’t you?” Rob says, quickly.

Felipe freezes. “You are not making me feel very confident right now. Rob, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Rob says. “But a lot of shit is going to happen very fast and I want you to know that.”

Felipe’s silent for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that isn’t complaining about the timing, because he really doesn’t feel very confident anymore. Before he can answer, Rob gets out of the car, taking his small bag of tools with him, and skips down the road.

Felipe goes to find a better place to park.

Rob’s muttering at himself as he goes up the street and round the back to the service entrance of the restaurant. He knew he shouldn’t have said something like that. This wasn’t a stupid film with a soppy ending. It didn’t _need_ to be said. Felipe’s right. But… but he _had_ needed to say it.

He doesn’t need the distraction either.

It takes about fifty seconds to get the door unlocked. He knows there’s an alarm on the other side, but Mark, being as wonderful and useful as he is, has already shown them the code when they came inside after their talk. Before Rob opens the door, he finds the memory, finds the code, and types in the four digit number as soon as he’s inside.

No alarm sounds.

This is already going better than expected.

He doesn’t turn the lights on, not wanting to cause any unwanted attention, and flicks on the flashlight. It shouldn’t be hard to get to where he needs to be. There are two rooms he needs to try, and one of them _should_ be just around this corn-

“Oh for fuck sake.”

Felipe’s parked at the end of the service road that leads between the restaurant and the furniture shop next door. He watches the back door of the building, as he always does, waiting for Rob to emerge with the bags of money. Thankfully, there’s silence tonight. No screeching annoying alarms alerting anyone to the intrusion. If they’re lucky, nobody will hear about this until opening the next morning, and they’re going to be long gone by then, or that’s the plan.

Fucking dogs.

What is with everyone’s need for their possessions to be guarded by dogs?

The two not so cute bundles of fur are trapped, at the moment, in the corridor Rob needs to go down, behind what looks like a stair gate for babies. The light from the torch has awoken them from their sleep and they both lift their heads simultaneously to look at the intruder.

Rob’s prepared, though.

When he’d been preparing the ‘treats’ for any animals that they may have happened to cross during the trip, he’d felt like an idiot, but he’s rather proud of his forward thinking now. He takes the plastic bag of mashed mincemeat from his bag and, carefully leaning over the gate he hopes the dogs can’t get over, deposits the meat on the other side of the gate.

The dogs look between the strange human with the light and the meat, and go for the meat. It takes about twenty seconds for the drugs to take effect, then the dogs are on the floor again, sleeping. At least, Rob _hopes_ they’re sleeping. They _look_ big enough to be able to take the dose he put in to meat.

Carefully, he climbs over the gate, edging around the sleeping dogs and down the corridor.

If the money isn’t in here, he’s going to be pissed.

The room at the end of the corridor, one of the two places in the building where the money _could_ be, looks like a normal, disused office. There’s an empty desk and chair, an empty book shelf in one corner and a set of drawers.

Rob sighs, but checks the drawers just in case. He’s not sure what he’s expecting, but it isn’t for the money to be in there.

And that’s exactly where it is.

In the drawers are cases full of twenty pound notes, like something from an action film. It almost makes Rob laugh a little. He doesn’t count how much is in each case. But there are eight briefcases. And that’s a lot of money.

Taking his bag with him on each trip, in case something were to happen, Rob takes the briefcases two at a time past the still sleeping dogs and into the street outside.

Felipe watches from the car as Rob goes in and out of the building, each time emerging with more briefcases and more money. It’s a lot. More than they’ve ever handled in cash before.

There’s not a lot of room in the car with all their stuff as well, but Rob finds room to cram the briefcases in, grinning all the while because something is finally going _right_. The grin is contagious and, even though he’s worried and pretty sure everything is about to explode in their faces, Felipe’s grinning too by the time Rob climbs back into the car the final time.

“They are all money, yes?” Felipe asks. He wouldn’t be surprised to find Mark had just filled the cases with paper and put a couple of hundred pounds worth of notes on the top.

“It’s all money,” Rob says, patting the case on his lap. He’s already had that thought and checked each case, because he didn’t trust how simple this all was either.

He didn’t check the other room. Even if this isn’t all the money, it’s a large enough chunk to teach Alonso and Mark.

“You did it,” Felipe says. He doesn’t know _why_ he thought Rob wouldn’t be able to. They’ve done things like this before and they’re probably do things like this again in future. Felipe puts it down to tiredness and starts the car. They’ve a more important job to attend to.

“We did it,” Rob says, quietly, still grinning at Felipe. They’ve done it. They’re halfway there now.


	22. Nearly Over

It’s a long drive down to where Rob brought a house by the beach and suggested Lucy, Raffaela, and the boys move in. Felipe tries to insist on driving all the way, but Rob doesn’t let him, which he’s slightly thankful for, because Felipe’s already asleep before Rob can even start the car again.

It’s still dark when Felipe wakes up, but they aren’t on the motorway anymore. There are no other cars on the road, or people walking on the street, and it gives Felipe a weird feeling. The emptiness of the world is unsettling.

“How long was I asleep for?” Felipe asks.

“Not long,” Rob says. “A little over an hour.”

“We are nearly there now?” Felipe asks. “You should have woken me.”

“You were tired,” Rob said. When Felipe yawns, he yawns too, blinking back the sleep he’s been fighting for the past hour.

“Do you think they will have already started?” Felipe asks, peering out the window at the dark streets outside.

Rob shakes his head. “They said they would wait until we got there, in case there was a complication or something and they needed us to make a decision.”

“Complication?” Felipe asks, suddenly wide awake. “What kind of complication?”

Rob shrugs. “It’s just a precaution. Nothing will happen.”

Felipe isn’t too sure. Rob has said that before and not been right. He doesn’t say that though.

“How long until we get there?” he asks, instead.

“Twenty minutes according to the satnav,” Rob says. “There isn’t much traffic around here, so it might be a little less.”

Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes, and they would stop the car outside a house on the same street as his family’s. Twenty minutes and, if it wasn’t for Lewis Hamilton, he would have been able to walk there and _see_ them.

“It’s nearly over,” Felipe said, quietly, the realisation not as much of a relief as he would have hoped.

“Nearly over,” Rob says with a smile, patting Felipe’s knee with one hand, his eyes still on the road ahead.

“Where do we go?” Felipe asks. “After?”

“I… I don’t know,” Rob says. He’s been trying to come up with an answer for the past hour, trying to keep himself awake by making more plans, but he still has no idea where they’re going to go next. They can go anywhere they want with the amount of money Alonso has gifted them. Anywhere Hamilton won’t find them again.

“We just drive?” Felipe asks, a smile forced onto his own face. That had been the plan before. Just drive and see where they ended up.

It hadn’t worked though.

Rob laughed a little too. “Just drive.”

Felipe yawns again and Rob laughs.

“Go back to sleep,” he says.

“We are nearly there now,” Felipe complains.

“Go back to sleep,” Rob says again. “I’ll wake you up when we get there. I promise.”

“You had better,” Felipe mumbles, resting his head against the window and closing his eyes again.

That didn’t take that much convincing, Rob thinks, rubbing his own eyes again to try to keep himself awake.

 

The street Rob stops on seems darker than all the other streets. He knows he’s making that up. There are two street lights half way down the street doing their best to try to make the place look friendly, but it isn’t working. Rob sighs, looking down the street with the engine off. He wonders if the two people Hamilton has watching the house have any idea what’s going on. Knowing their luck, they’d be on high alert.

The house they’re sat outside looks like every other house on the street: detached with a pristine little garden out the front and a bigger one around the back. The back of the houses face the sea, not that it can be seen this far in land. It’s only a ten minute drive, though. The perfect place for raising children, Rob had thought.

The house, like all the other houses, has every light inside switched off, it being half three in the morning when most people are sleeping.

Gently, Rob shakes Felipe awake, keeping his promise. The little Brazilian blinks awake, frowning at the car for those few moments when sleep erases memories, then he remembers what’s going on.

“We’re here?” he asks quietly.

Rob nods, not trusting himself to speak. They shouldn’t really be sitting in the car for so long, attracting suspicion, but he’s found he can’t move. He’s scared what he’ll do if he gets out of the car.

Before either of them move, the door to the house they’re sat outside opens, and Dan and Jev hurry outside.

“What are you doing sat out here?” Jev hisses, pulling the car door open and dragging Rob out of the car as Dan does the same to Felipe. They’re both too numb to protest, letting Dan and Jev take them inside and into the warmth.

The lights _are_ on inside, blocked from the outside with what look like black out curtains at all the windows.

“Any movement?” Jev calls up the stairs.

“No,” Romain calls down from upstairs. “I think we are ok.”

“Idiots,” Jev mutters, before hurrying down a second set of stairs into the basement.

“Don’t worry about them,” Dan says, grinning at them. “They’re just annoyed I won the choice of what we should have for dinner.”

“I would not call that dinner,” Romain says as he comes down the stairs too, throwing Rob and Felipe a filthy look. “What is wrong with you two? Sat outside like idiots?”

“Sorry,” Rob mumbles, though he’s not entirely sure what he’s sorry about. They didn’t get caught after all.

Romain shakes his head. “Come on. I will show you what we have done.”

He leads Rob, Felipe, and Dan down the stairs Jev has already gone down.

“I thought you were not going to do anything until we got here?” Felipe says, confused.

“We are not allowed to go _in_ until you are here,” Romain corrects him. “But we had to get started on this before. It took a while and we could not wait until you arrived.”

“It’s a tunnel,” Rob says, when they reach the bottom of the stairs. It is, indeed, a tunnel, leading down from the basement and presumably under the surrounding houses.

“It is a service tunnel,” Jev says, poking his head out from where he’s stood in the tunnel entrance. “Or it used to be. Built when the houses first started to be built for maintenance and things. It is not used. It is a stupid idea. But it is here, and useful.”

“We have not started the dig up under their house yet,” Romain says. “This is something we needed to wait for you for. After that, the rescue will happen very quickly.”

“How long will it take to dig?” Felipe asks, peering at the hole. It looks pretty deep, but he can’t tell for sure.

Romain and Jev look at each other, then at Dan, none of them really having an answer.

Jev shrugs. “Took us a little longer than an hour to do this,” Jev says. “Will take a little longer at the other end because we are going up, not down. But…”

“But what?” Rob asks.

“It isn’t the quietest thing in the world,” Dan says. “They’re going to notice it. Your Mrs., I mean. And they don’t know what’s going on.”

They don’t know what’s going on. And if they hear someone drilling up through their basement, they’re going to panic and think someone is trying to break in. Well, someone _will_ be trying to break in, but they’re not to know they’re trying to help.

“What do you want us to do?” Romain asks.

All three of them turn to Rob and Felipe.

“You’re just going to have to do it,” Rob says, eventually. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

“I had an idea!” Dan pipes up.

“It was a stupid idea,” Romain mumbles.

Jev shakes his head. He doesn’t even want to talk about the idea.

“It’s better than the whole zero ideas you guys had,” Dan says, pretending to be hurt by the comments.

“And what is the idea?” Rob asks. The grin Dan gives him makes him feel like he’s going to regret asking the question.

“Pizza.”


	23. Pizza

“This is not going to work,” Romain mutters, watching Dan come down the road in their rental car.

It is a pretty stupid idea, Rob thinks, but some of the most ingenious ideas look stupid until they’ve actually succeeded. They’re all stood at the makeshift look out post in the front bedroom, taking it in turns to get a good view of what’s going on.

“He is going to get himself killed,” Jev says, stepping away from the window to let the others get a better view. “Idiot.”

Rob and Felipe ignore him, watching Dan park the car outside the house down the street and climb out, bringing a box of pizza with him.

“Who orders pizza at four in the morning anyway?” Jev asks.

“It’s better than nothing,” Rob says, growing tired of the two Frenchmen’s pessimistic attitude, even though he’s thinking the exact same thing.

Dan knocks on the door, pizza burning the hand he’s holding it in. How do delivery boys do this? He gives them time to come down the stairs, figuring nobody would really be up at four in the morning. After five minutes, he knocks again, harder this time, and doesn’t stop until someone opens the door.

A very tired looking woman in a dressing gown glares at him.

“What is the matter?”

“Pizza,” Dan explains offering the box.

“We didn’t order any pizza,” the woman says, confused and annoyed.

“I know,” Dan says, dropping his voice in case anyone was listening. “Two very nice gentlemen who claim to be married to you sent it.”

He gives the woman a cheeky wink and a grin, before shoving the box of pizza into the woman’s hand and heading back to the car to driving away again.

“Oh my god,” Romain whispers.

“What?” Jev asks from across the room, jumping up. “What is the matter?”

“It actually worked,” Romain says, still in disbelief. They couldn’t see what actually happened at the house, the angle doesn’t give them that good a view of the house, but the light that had been spilling into the street from the front door was now gone, the door closed.

“It worked?” Jev asks, surprised. He knocks Felipe out of the way to look through the small gap they’ve allowed themselves in the curtains, but he can’t see anything anymore.

“Give them a few minutes and then we will start the drilling at the other end,” Romain says, stepping away from the lookout post. “We will need someone to stay on the lookout, though. To watch incase the people Lewis have sent get any ideas.”

“We can do that,” Rob says, glad to give himself something to do.

Jev steps away from the post too and follows his partner down the stairs, all the time muttering about how stupid Dan’s plan was. Felipe and Rob are left in silence again.

“A little longer than an hour, they said,” Felipe says, quietly. “A little longer than an hour and we will have them back.”

Rob smiles at him, then turns back to the window so he doesn’t have to think of anything to say. He’s happy about this. Of course he is. He misses his family. But…

“Are you ok?” Rob asks.

Felipe nods. “Am fine. Just tired, I think.”

“Maybe you should get some sleep,” Rob suggests, quickly. He won’t have to think of anything to say if Felipe is sleeping. “We don’t know how long we’re going to be driving for later.”

“You must be tired too,” Felipe says, but Rob shakes his head.

“I had more sleep in the car, I’m fine,” he lies. He feels as if he’s about to drop dead, but Felipe doesn’t need to know that.

“Still have not decided where we are going next,” Felipe says, making no attempt to go to sleep. “Are we… do we stay together?”

Rob gulps. He’s been waiting for Felipe to ask that and at the same time dreading the moment he does. Staying together might not be the best idea in the world. It didn’t work this time. But he could argue that staying together would be safer. Hamilton’s would be less able to find them if they were only one group, Rob could argue. He doesn’t know if he’d be right, and he doesn’t know if Felipe would be willing to believe him, but he can argue that.

“Do you want to?” he asks, in the end. He doesn’t look at Felipe, but can feel the Brazilian watching him.

“Do not want to leave you, Rob,” Felipe says, quietly. “But do not want to put Raffaela and Felipinho in trouble again.”

“Why would you be doing that?” Rob asks, glancing over at him.

“We would, wouldn’t we?” Felipe asks. “If we stay together then we put them in danger again, just like this time.”

“Not if we were all together,” Rob says, but he knows Felipe will not agree to that and he knows why.

“I cannot tell her, Rob,” he says, quietly.

“She already knows,” Rob says. It’s obvious she knows. “You have nothing to worry about, Felipe. Lucy is fine with it.”

“ _I_ cannot tell her,” Felipe says. “I cannot say it aloud, Rob.”

“Then we’ll do it together,” Rob says. “Felipe, we can make this work, the four of us. And we’d all be together and we can protect them properly, like we should have been doing this time.”

He turns back to the lookout, even though he knows Felipe is still watching him. It would have been impossible to not hear the desperation in his voice then. When he’d told Lucy, he’d thought Felipe would do the same with Raffaela. Maybe he’d been being an idiot, but he’d hoped they could all work something together and he doesn’t know why Felipe doesn’t want that too.

“You really think we can all be together?” Felipe asks after a small silence.

“Yeah,” Rob says. “Yeah, I do.”

He can’t think of anything else to say. Of course he thinks this. He wouldn’t be making it work with Lucy and Felipe if he didn’t think Felipe could do the same with his own family.

When he turns back to Felipe he receives a weak smile. Felipe means it to be reassuring, but Rob knows it means he doesn’t believe him.

Dan bursts into the room, grinning at the success of his so called stupid plan.

“I told you, I’m a genius,” he declares, not bothering to apologise for interrupting the silence. “Where are the others? I need to make them eat their words.”

“Downstairs,” Rob says, and Dan bounces back out of the room and clatters down the stairs with as much grace as an elephant. Rob smiles weakly back at Felipe. “Go and get some sleep,” he says. “I’ll wake you when something happens.”

Felipe sighs. He can’t deny how tired he is any longer.

“Fine,” he says, quietly. “But you must wake me up, ok? Do not want to miss out on anything.”

“I’ll wake you up,” Rob promises.

“I love you,” Felipe says.

“Love you too,” Rob says, quietly, watching Felipe leave the room.


	24. Reuninion

“Felipe? Felipe, come on, they’re saying they’re nearly done,” Rob says, quietly, shaking Felipe gently to try to wake him up. “Felipe, come on.”

His heart stops a moment when Felipe doesn’t react.

“Felipe!”

“Urg,” Felipe complains, curling himself tighter to try to stop himself from waking up. Rob almost laughs. “What’s wrong?”

“They’re about to break through,” Rob says, grinning as the annoyed expression on Felipe’s face fell. “You wanted me to wake you up.”

It feels like he had only gone to sleep five seconds ago, but Felipe jumps up and out of bed, stumbling with the blankets still wrapped around his feet.

“Calm down,” Rob laughs. “They’re waiting for you.”

They go down the stairs into the basement together, Rob holding Felipe’s hand tightly, still a little scared from when he hadn’t woken up straight away.

Romain, Jev, and Dan are waiting for them, Romain and Dan in the hole they’ve created and Jev crouched beside it.

“Is ready?” Felipe asks, trying to peer down the hole.

“Yep,” Dan says, proudly. “We’ll get going as soon as these two stop bickering over who’s going to be on look out.”

Jev sighs and stands, crossing his arms. “I will do it. Even though I am the one who has been doing all the hard work.”

“I don’t really care who does what,” Rob says. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”

Still mumbling about how unfair it is, Jev stomps back up the stairs, making Dan giggle like a school girl in the process, before he disappears back into the hole.

“We will be, I would say, between ten and fifteen minutes, prehaps.” Romain says. “If we are not back after that than that then there has probably been a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Felipe asks.

“I cannot know,” Romain says. “We will probably be back. Do not worry that much about it.”

The Frenchman disappears into the hole after Dan before either Felipe or Rob could ask any more questions. Both stare after them, not sure what else to do now.

“We should probably go and wait in the car,” Rob says, quietly, even though he has no intention of going anywhere until he has Lucy and the boys with him. “Quicker get away.”

“Probably,” Felipe says.

Neither of them move.

They have the car Romain and Jev are renting and they have their own car. It’s probably not legal to use the rental car but neither of them really care about that. They have everything they need to get away.

“Are you going to tell her?” Rob asks, his eyes on the tunnel, waiting for Romain and Dan to emerge with the others.

“Not straight away,” Felipe says. “When things have calmed down, maybe. I do not know.”

“You’ve nothing to be scared about,” Rob says. “She already knows, I’m sure.”

“But it will be different when I tell her,” Felipe says, taking his hand away from Rob’s so he can rub the sweat off.

“Better,” Rob promises.

Felipe looks up at him, about to argue that he doesn’t know that, when there’s noise from the tunnel.

A mop of blonde hair pops up, out of the hole. Rob’s eyes go wide.

“Daddy?”

“Frankie!”

Rob rushes over and lifts his little boy out of the tunnel, then the second. He wraps his arms around both his sons, pulling them into a hug and smothering himself in their hair. The smell is familiar, he’s thankful for. When he eventually pulls away from them, there are tears in his eyes and a huge grin on his face.

Next to be lifted out of the hole is Felipinho, followed closely by his mother. Felipe stairs at them for a moment, not quite able to believe this is really happening, before Raffaela rushes over, bringing Felipinho with her. She’s crying when she hugs Felipe, not that he can tell through his own tears.

“Papa, I have _missed_ you,” Felipinho says, wrapping his arm around his father’s neck in a hug.

Everyone is safe. Unbelievably, everyone is safe.

“Where’s Lucy?” Rob asks as Dan and Romain climb out of their tunnel. “Boys, where’s your mum?”

“She was not there,” Romain says, brushing dust off of himself.

“What?”

“I went to wake her up after the pizza came and she wasn’t there,” Raffaela says, pulling away from Felipe to speak. “I don’t know where she is. I have tried phoning but her mobile is at home. I don’t know what happened.”

“No,” Rob shook his head. “No this isn’t happening.”

Hamilton can’t have her. There has to be another explanation. This cannot be happening.

Rob turns to Romain and Dan, as if hoping for some kind of answer from them, but they don’t say anything. Dan shrugs and Romain’s eyes are on the floor.

“I’m sorry,” Raffaela says, hopelessly.

“Daddy?” Frankie asks, uncertainly. “Daddy, what’s wrong?”

Rob doesn’t answer. He can’t.

“Everything’s ok,” Felipe says. “Why don’t you three go upstairs with Dan and get some hot chocolate, yeah?”

He puts Felipinho down, then has three little boys looking up at him. He turns to Dan, hopefully. The Australian puts on a grin and nods.

“Come on, you three, upstairs now or no marshmallows.”

It solves the problem of the children, but Rob doesn’t seem too concerned by this. They all stand in silence for a while, trying to think of something they can do.

“You do not know for sure he has her,” Felipe says, eventually.

“Where else could she be?” Rob snaps. It’s ok for Felipe. He has his entire family here. Everyone he cares about is safe.

“It will be ok,” Felipe says, but he doesn’t believe that any more than Rob does.

Upstairs, there’s a phone ringing. Romain frowns, unaware the line is even connected, then goes up the stairs to answer it, a little thankful it gets up away from this mess.

“Where else could she be?” Rob asks, quieter this time, and now he really is just looking for any other idea, anything that means this hasn’t all been for nothing.

Nobody has an answer for him.

Romain comes back down the stairs a few moments later, the house phone in his hand.

“It’s for you,” he says, quietly, offering the phone to Rob.


	25. Eu Te Amo

“Rob?”

Lucy’s voice is shaking so much Rob can barely recognise it, but even before he hears it he knows it’s her.

“Lucy? What’s happened? Where are you?”

There’s a low laugh and Rob should have known he wouldn’t be talking to his wife.

“Did you really think you would get away with this Smedley?” Hamilton’s voice is as cold as Rob remembers. “You’re lucky I let you have your brats. Where is my money?”

“Let her go, Lewis, come on,” Rob tries, closing his eyes so he doesn’t have to look at anyone in the room. “This is stupid.”

“What’s stupid is thinking you can run off with millions of pounds and just get away with it,” Hamilton says. “I want my money.”

Rob takes a deep breath, his eyes still closed. He can’t go back to working for Hamilton, there’s no way he’s going back to working for Hamilton. But this is what Hamilton wants. Without hearing it said, Rob knows already that will be the condition. There’s no getting out of this.

“Where and when?” he asks.

“Rob, don’t,” Felipe says, but Rob ignores him.

“Remember that pier you took Frankie down on his first holiday?” Hamilton asks. “That should be close enough, shouldn’t it? You have half an hour.”

The line goes dead, but Rob doesn’t pull the phone from his ear for a couple of minutes, trying to order his thoughts before anybody else can butt in with their opinions. When he opens his eyes, Felipe and Raffaela are staring at him. He’s thankful to find Romain has already disappeared back up the stairs.

“He has her,” Rob says, as if that needs confirming.

“Rob, please do not go to him,” Felipe says. “We will figure something out.”

“What, Felipe?” Rob snaps, because he really doesn’t have any idea what they can do anymore. “It’s alright for you. You’ve got all your family. You can skip off happily into the sunset.”

“You know I cannot be happy if you are not,” Felipe snaps back, stepping away from Raffaela. “We will work something out, Rob.”

“Half an hour,” Rob says, quietly. It isn’t enough time to come up with a plan. It’s barely enough time to get to the pier Hamilton wants to meet at.

Felipe goes silent. He doesn’t have an answer to that. Rob’s right, there’s nothing he can do.

“Let me go with you,” he says, eventually.

“No.”

“Rob, you do not need to do this on your own,” Felipe says. “Who left Hamilton and took all his money?”

“It was my idea,” Rob says, quietly.

“Yes, but who did it, Rob?” Felipe asks. “We are _both_ responsible for this. I am not letting you do this alone.”

“You’re not coming Felipe,” Rob insists. “I’m not letting him have you.”

Felipe doesn’t reply for a moment, trying to figure out another argument, but he knows there will be no convincing him.

“We will wait here for you and Lucy,” he says, quietly. “I am not leaving you behind.”

He’s not going to take no for an answer this time. If Rob will not let him go with him, the least he can do is wait for him.

The Brit sighs, but then nods. “Inside. You don’t mess about, Felipe. Promise me.”

“You will not have to worry about us,” Felipe insists, taking Rob’s hands in his. “Go and bring Lucy back.”

The smile on Rob’s face makes Felipe cringe. It’s too sad, pushing the tears in his eyes. Felipe reaches up to brush them away, cupping Rob’s face and pulling him down into a kiss.

Rob’s too surprised to react and, when Felipe pulls away, he’s left staring at his friend.

Felipe smiles sheepishly. “For luck.”

“Now who’s over reacting?” Rob asks.

“Go and get Lucy,” Felipe orders. “We will wait for you.”

“I love you,” Rob says, as he steps away.

Felipe waits a moment, glancing at Raffaela and the look of panic on her face. There’s no going back now.

“I love you too.”

 

The boys are in the kitchen with Dan, in the middle of what looks like a marshmallow fight, but they stop as soon as Rob comes in.

“Daddy?” Frankie asks.

Rob smiles, but it makes his face ache and he knows he’s not going to be able to keep this up for very long.

“I’m going to get mummy,” Rob says, quietly. “I won’t be long. But you two be good whilst I’m gone, ok?”

“Where is she?” Frankie asks, suspiciously.

“It’s a secret,” Rob says, trying to keep the smile on his face. “I won’t be long, ok?”

“Ok,” Frankie says, slowly, not sure he believes his father or not.

“Come here,” Rob says, holding out his arms for both his sons. They hurry into the hug, not quite understanding the seriousness of the situation. “I love you two, ok?”

Felipe watches from the kitchen doorway. He doesn’t know why he followed Rob in here. He has no business being here and the scene in front of him just makes his heart ache. They should have done something sooner. They shouldn’t have waited this long.

There are hands around his waist and he turns to see Raffaela.

“You love him,” she says. Felipe can’t tell if it’s a question or a statement, but he nods anyway.

“We will talk about it later,” he says, quietly.

“You should have told me sooner,” Raffaela says, ignoring the request.. She rests her forehead gently against his and they both close their eyes. “I already knew.”

“I know,” Felipe admits. Of course she already knew. It had been obvious every time they spoke to one another. Every time she said “I love you.” “Please, I will explain it all later.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Raffaela says. “It is alright. Lucy explained everything.”

Felipe frowns and opens his eyes, pulling away from her to look at her properly. “You do not mind?”

Raffaela shakes her head.

“I wish you would have told me sooner,” she says. “But that’s all.”

She smiles at the look of shock on his face.

“Eu te amo, Felipe.”

“Eu te amo,” Felipe says, quietly. Rob was right again. He should have done this a lot sooner.


	26. Being Predictable

Rob takes the rental car and a few of the briefcases of money with him. He’s no idea if it’s enough. He doesn’t really remember exactly how much they took from Hamilton now. But he knows Hamilton doesn’t really care about the money. This isn’t about the money.

The pier isn’t that far away, and with the lack of traffic this early in the morning, it doesn’t take long at all to get there. It should be closed now, but Rob isn’t surprised to find the gates swinging gently in the light breeze. The sound of the sea crashing against the beach fills his ears even whilst he waits in the car for his brain to get in gear.

There used to be happy memories here.

Hamilton’s probably going to ruin those as well.

Rob shivers when he gets out the car. It’s colder than he expected it to be, although he doesn’t know why. It’s still the middle of the night, and they’re by the sea, and in England. He should have been expecting this kind of temperature.

He cannot see anyone else yet. He knows Hamilton will have men about, making sure their boss is safe as if Rob is planning on doing something stupid but he can’t see any of them and pays them no mind. He’s not going to do something to bring them out of hiding. They don’t matter.

Lucy and Hamilton are nowhere to be seen as well. Rob knows they must already be here, though. They were probably here when Hamilton phoned. Waiting for him to come as Hamilton knew he would.

Rob walks down the pier, the briefcases of money in his hands. It’s not the kind of amusement pier, with fairground rides and everything else. Sometimes in the day there are small stalls selling trinkets, but now it’s empty. Just the wood, the concrete, and the sea crashing against it.

The noise of the sea fills his mind until he can barely hear himself think. It’s not particularly storming, but deafening in the otherwise silent world.

“You came then?”

Rob spins around, doing his best not to seem surprised and keep his cool. Hamilton and Lucy walk down the pier, arm in arm, though the gag across Lucy’s mouth and the fact her hands are tied behind her back make them look less like the happy couple than Hamilton’s charismatic grin would suggest.

“You’re very predictable, Rob,” Hamilton says.

“I have your money, now let her go,” Rob says.

Hamilton eyes the cases Rob is holding. Rob can’t tell if he believes they hold the money or not, but he can soon prove they do.

“Is that it?” Hamilton asks.

“It’s what we took,” Rob says.

Under any other circumstance, he would argue about the word ‘took’. They didn’t _take_ the money. They earned it. But that’s not a discussion for now. “Count it yourself.”

“You’re alright,” Hamilton says. “No, don’t come any closer. Stay there. Toss them here.”

Rob rolls his eyes. He’s pretty sure there’s no reason for Hamilton to be doing this. There’s no way he thinks Rob would do anything to him. Without arguing, Rob tosses over the briefcases one at a time. All three of them watch the cases clatter on the concrete of the pier, and nobody moves for a moment. Rob looks up before Hamilton does.

“Let her go.”

Hamilton smirks and pulls his arm away from Lucy. Rob can feel his heart in his throat, whilst he waits for Hamilton. He doesn’t believe his ex-employer will just let her go. All along, Rob’s known Hamilton’s not after the money. He’s not just going to let her go, but Rob knows better than to try and guess what he will do.

Surprisingly, he shoves Lucy towards Rob and she stumbles into him. Rob wastes no time pulling the gag from his wife’s mouth, holding Lucy’s cheeks, gently rubbing away tear marks with his thumb. She’s here. She’s safe.

“Are you alright?” he asks. “Did he hurt you?”

Lucy chokes back a sob and nods. “I’m fine. I’m ok.”

He doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry and ends up doing something that’s nothing like either of them. Lucy kisses him before he can figure out what he’s doing and he sighs, calming down instantly.

“You’re ok,” he says when Lucy breaks the kiss. She’s ok.

There’s the cold laugh from the other person on the pier and they both turn to Hamilton, who has collected his money and looks very pleased with himself.

“You’re so predictable, Smedley,” he says. “You always have been.”

“I don’t care,” Rob says, and he really doesn’t. “You’ve got your money now. What else matters to you?”

“Don’t you want to know?” Hamilton asks. “Don’t you want to know how I knew you were coming?”

“Because I’m predictable,” Rob says, holding Lucy close. “You already said that.”

“Predictable,” Hamilton repeats. “I knew you would go to the French when you got that email. I knew you would get them to help. You picked the wrong people to trust, Rob. What have they always said? They’re loyal to the money.”

Rob felt his heart stop and he automatically held Lucy a little tighter.

“What have you done?”

“What anybody would have done,” Hamilton says. “I went and paid them more.”

Something isn’t right. Romain and Jev have been very cold with each other, snapping at one another when they think nobody else is in the room. Now, they’ve gone downstairs to “talk”, but refuse to do so whilst Felipe’s there and he doesn’t like it. He can’t think of anything they could be talking about that they can’t do in front of him.

He’s peering down the stairs into the basement, as if glaring at the path they’ve taken might make him able to hear what they’re talking about, but so far he’s had no success.

“What is the matter?” Raffaela asks, sliding her arms around Felipe’s waste and pulling him into a hug from behind.

“I don’t know,” Felipe mutters, not taking his eyes off of the bottom of the stairs. He can’t see any further into the basement, but it doesn’t stop him trying. “Something is off.”

“Is Rob going to phone when he’s on his way back?” Raffaela asks. “We can get the kids ready.”

“I do not know,” Felipe says. It feels like Rob has been gone ages, but Felipe’s trying not to think about that. He’ll be fine. There’s nothing he needs to worry about.

“Could you phone him and find out?” Raffaela asks.

Felipe shakes his head. “If he is with Hamilton when I phone, it may make things worse.”

He has no idea what Rob has planned or how he’ll deal with Hamilton, and he doesn’t want to accidentally sabotage anything that he’s doing.

And he doesn’t want Rob to not answer.

He doesn’t want to phone Rob and to get no reply. Even though that would probably mean he’s too busy to answer the phone, and all the logical parts of Felipe’s brain would be telling him this, it would still cause him to panic. There would still be the tiniest chance he wasn’t answering because something had happened to him.

“He will not be much longer,” Felipe says. “For sure, I would not be surprised if he is already on his way back.”

He smiles, hoping to comfort her but he knows it isn’t working.

There’s movement downstairs and Jev appears at the bottom of the stairs. Felipe fumbles for a moment, trying to decide to go down or to follow Jev. He chooses Jev and jumps up as Jev brushes past him.

“What is going on?”

“Nothing,” Jev says. “Sometimes we have to discuss things that are no concern to you.”

“Like what?” Felipe asks, following Jev up to the top floor.

“Like things that are of no concern to you,” Jev says, ignoring the groan he gets from Felipe.

The Brazilian goes back down the stairs. He’s bored of waiting, and he doesn’t like it that nobody is telling him what’s going on. Something is definitely wrong.

“Go and get the kids into the car,” Felipe instructs Raffaela.

“Something _is_ wrong,” she says. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Felipe says. “I mean… I am not sure, ok. I do not know what is going on, but I don’t like it. Get Felipinho, Frankie, and Felix and get them in the car. I will be out in a minute.”

He’s trying not to panic, but it isn’t really working in the slightest. He needs Rob here to calm him down. They’re a team. That’s why they work.

“Felipe?” Raffaela calls from the kitchen, where the boys were left with Dan and the hot chocolate.

“Yeah?” Felipe asks, coming in. As soon as he opens the kitchen door, it’s clear what the problem is.

The children, and Dan, are gone, their mugs of chocolate still on the table where they’d been sitting.


	27. The Chase

“What have you done with them?” Rob asks, even though he knows he isn’t going to get any answers.

Hamilton just smirks, giving no answer to the question. Rob launches at him, but Hamilton steps back a little, the smirk on his face that little bit smugger.

“Hurt me, Smedley, and neither of you are going to make it off of this pier alive,” he warns.

Rob doesn’t have to see the men Hamilton has about the place to know the threat isn’t empty. He swallows his anger and goes back to Lucy. There has to be something he can do. There’s always something he can do.

“Aren’t you going to try to phone them?” Hamilton asks. When Rob looks up at him, he looks disappointed Rob hasn’t already tried.

“Like you would let me,” Rob says. He doesn’t let on that the thought of phoning hadn’t even occurred to him. Maybe he’d known without even thinking about it that Hamilton wouldn’t let him warn them.

“I’m a fair man,” Hamilton says. “I’ll give you a choice.”

“What kind of choice?” Rob asks, suspiciously. There’s no way he’s going to like this.

“I’ll give you a phone call,” Hamilton says. “If you give me back Lucy.”

Rob deflates.

Felipe or Lucy. It’s what he’s asking. And Rob isn’t going to give an answer. He can’t.

“Rob?” Lucy looks up at him, tears still falling down her face but she’s a lot calmer now than she was before. A lot calmer than he is. “Phone them. The kids.”

“The clocks ticking, Rob,” Hamilton calls. “The French already have their job. It’s not up to me how fast they do it.”

“Please,” Lucy says, quietly. “I’ll be ok, I promise.”

“You can’t promise that,” Rob says. “And I can’t let him hurt you anymore.”

“They cannot have gone far,” Raffaela says, following Felipe out of the back door. “I was only in here just before I came to talk to you. How far can they have gone?”

He knew. He _knew_ something was wrong.

They head out of the back gate, which has definitely been recently used, and onto the path that leads around the back of the houses. Which way?

“Split up?” Raffaela suggests.

“No,” Felipe says. “He already has Lucy and the kids, I am not letting him have you too.”

“You think… you think this is Hamilton?” Raffaela asks.

“Who else could it be?” Felipe says. The only answer he can come up with is Hamilton and he hates it. They were so close. So close to everything going alright, just once.

He makes the decision to go right and Raffaela follows him close behind. She finds his hand and holds it, but it does nothing to calm him down. He needs Rob for that now.

“Why would they be working for Hamilton?” Raffaela asks.

“I do not know,” Felipe calls back, a little annoyed that he _still_ doesn’t know. If this were the other way around, if Rob had been here with the kids and he had gone to see Hamilton, Felipe’s certain Rob would not have let this happen. He would have _seen_ what was going on. Mark was right. Rob is definitely the brains in the pairing.

The sound of a car screeching to a stop on the road comes from the other side of the houses. For a second, they both stop and listen. Then there’s the distinctive sound of car doors slamming shut and both Felipe and Raffaela burst into life again, racing through the nearest garden and back out onto the street.

“Papa!”

Jev lifts Felipinho into a car Felipe has never seen before and doesn’t bother strapping the child in before slamming the door shut and climbing into the driver’s seat.

Raffaela runs for the car before it can leave whilst Felipe is stood rooted to the spot, slightly stunned. She doesn’t make it, and is shaking Felipe’s arm before he wakes up properly.

“Get in the car, we need to go.”

“What?”

“Now, Felipe,” Raffaela orders, dragging him to the car that is parked a little way from where they are.

It isn’t until he’s in the car, which is still all packed and ready for them to start again, that he realises what’s going on. Jev’s car screeches past them, shattering the night time silence, and something in Felipe’s head switches on. He’s in control here.

“You had better make your mind up soon, Rob, or you’re not going to have a decision to make,” Hamilton says.

Rob’s eyes are closed, but he can feel all the eyes around the pier on him, waiting for an answer. It was him, all those months ago, that had managed to convince everyone that this was a good idea. It makes sense that it’s him having to do this now.

“Rob, just phone,” Lucy says. “This isn’t about me and him. It’s about the kids.”

Rob opens his eyes and looks down at Lucy. The tears have almost entirely dried up now, and she’s talking a lot of sense, but Rob doesn’t want to believe it. He can’t lose her.

“Please,” Lucy says.

Rob’s eyes flick up to Hamilton, whose grin is smugger every time Rob looks up at him.

“Fine.”

The streets are empty at this time of night, which doesn’t give Felipe the advantage he usually has whilst he’s driving. Jev and the children don’t get too far ahead, Felipe always close behind them, but he can’t close the gap and he isn’t going to be able to unless something happens.

It’s not often he finds himself in the seat of the pursuer, and hasn’t even begun to think about getting them to stop. Maybe he’ll come up with an idea at the time. It’s what he’s hoping for.

Beside him, Raffaela doesn’t say anything, too scared of distracting him to speak. She watches the car ahead of them, not getting any closer or further away but always ahead.

Felipe’s phone starts to ring in his pocket. He glances down at it, but doesn’t take his hands off of the steering wheel.

“Phone.”

Raffaela grabs it, not entirely sure what to do now.

“It’s Rob.”

“Answer it.”

The car ahead of them just misses a red light and the red orb glares down at Felipe as he approaches. Without even thinking about it, Felipe drives through the red light, not paying attention to anybody else at the junction.

“Where’s Felipe?” Rob asks.

“Driving.”

He probably should have paid attention at the junction. He would have noticed, then, the police car sat there. The police car is no longer sat at the junction, but racing after them racing after Jev, sirens blazing.

“What’s wrong?” Rob asks.

“I don’t…” Raffaela looks out the window at the police car chasing them. “I don’t know. Felipe?”

“It does not matter,” Felipe says through gritted teeth. This is only going to make stopping the car more difficult and there’s no way he’ll be able to shake off the police car without traffic.

“Romain and Jev are working for Hamilton,” Rob says.

“I think we figured that out,” Raffaela says.

“Has something happened?” Rob asks. “Are the kids ok?”

The further they go, the more frustrated Felipe is. There’s no way he’s going to be able to catch them, and probably the only hope he has is that they run out of petrol, though their own needle is beginning to sink further and further to the ‘E’.

“I don’t know,” Raffaela says, slowly.

“You don’t know?”

There are a couple of cars beginning to dot the streets now, but not many and it isn’t enough to cause any problems for Jev.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Rob asks.

“I mean I do not know if the kids are ok,” Raffaela snaps.

Felipe tries to ignore her. They’re fine. The kids are ok. They have to be ok.

The car ahead of them skids a little, slowing down, and it looks for a second that there might actually be a god of some kind as Felipe comes that little bit closer. Then the car suddenly comes to a stop. Felipe doesn’t stop in time.


	28. What Do We Do Now?

“I think that’s long enough,” Hamilton calls, taking the phone from Rob. “Lucy?”

“You’re not getting away with this,” Rob says, holding Lucy closer to him.

“I think I already have,” Hamilton says.

Rob watches Hamilton hold Lucy’s face, his thumb tracing the trails her tears have left on her face. Lucy flinches away and Rob manages to find the strength to move, standing between his former boss and his wife.

“You are not getting away with this,” Rob says again.

Hamilton brushed Rob away and pulled Lucy towards him and out of Rob’s grip.

“Some people get to have everything they want, Smedley,” Hamilton says. He isn’t looking at Rob, his eyes on Lucy’s eyes, watching for her reaction. “Others don’t.”

Without warning, he pushes Lucy away from him, off the edge of the pier.

Without thinking, Rob goes after her.

“Felipinho!”

Raffaela’s out of the car and pulling her son out of the other car before Felipe can even acknowledge what’s happening. At first glance, he looks fine. Crying, but fine.

Felipe gets out of the car and immediately has his son placed in his arms so Raffaela can see to the Smedley boys. Felipinho wraps his arms around his father’s neck, but Felipe’s too numb to react, not really able to tell what’s going on.

The police pull to a stop behind them, the sirens still disturbing the silence for a couple more seconds before they’re switched off. Dan and Jev are already gone.

“They’re ok,” Raffaela says, pulling Felix out of the car. Frankie slides out too, physically shaking. “You’re ok, aren’t you?”

Frankie nods.

“What happened?” A policeman has made his way over, surveying the mess. Felipe holds Felipinho closer to him and shuts his eyes, as if the police can’t see him if he can’t see them.

“Someone took our kids,” Raffaela replies, glancing nervously at Felipe who’s now rocking with Felipinho and trying to keep him quiet.

“Who?”

“They ran off,” Raffaela says, trying not to look at Felipe too often. She knows she’s drawing attention to him and needs to stop. “Sorry about the lights.”

The second police officer has joined them now and is already on the radio to base whilst he peers into the cars.

“There’s an awful lot of things in here,” he observes. “Going somewhere?”

“Holiday,” Raffaela says shortly. “Could you go after them, maybe? Catch the criminals.”

Although not the one stood rocking a child to sleep, if that’s not too much to ask.

Apparently it is, as the police officer finds one of the cases of money. Why they’re looking, Felipe doesn’t know, but it’s just their luck.

“A lot of money to be taking on holiday,” he says. “Would you like to tell us where you got it? Sir?”

Felipe looks up from the floor, trying to figure out what he could say that wouldn’t lead to him being arrested, but he can’t think of anything. He looks to Raffaela for help, but she’s giving him the same pleading look.

Before either of them can say anything, the first police officer has cocked his head and Felipe knows he’s figured it out.

“What’s your name, sir?”

Felipe looks between Raffaela and the police officer. He knows he’s not getting away with this.

 

The water’s too murky for Rob to be able to make out anything, but he manages to hook an arm around Lucy. She’s not been underwater long, still kicking, and they break the surface beneath the pier.

For a moment, there’s just the sound of gasping and the waves crashing around them, dragging them backwards and forwards.

“Are you alright?” Rob asks, one arm still around Lucy to try to help her stay afloat, the other holding her face.

Lucy nods. “I’m fine. How are the kids?”

Rob gulps down air and a large wave crashing over their heads stops him from answering for a moment. “They’re fine,” he lies.

The waves are pushing them towards the shore, where he knows Hamilton or some of his minions are waiting for them. Rob kicks to try to keep them under the pier, but he knows they can’t stay there forever.

“What do we do now?” Lucy asks, as if he has a plan.

“I don’t know,” Rob says, looking around and hoping maybe there’s some chance a miracle is about to happen, but it doesn’t look like it.

“Can you get these ropes untied?” Lucy asked, shifting so Rob has hold of the ropes around Lucy’s wrists. He struggles with them, his hands sore and cold and wet, but eventually the ropes are lose enough for Lucy to squirm free.

She takes his hand and, without warning, pulls them both back under the water. Rob follows her blindly, unable to see in the clouded water. They swim under the water until they’ve been under so long Rob’s sure he’s going to have to breathe again, then Lucy pulls him to the surface.

Gasping for breath, Rob rubs his eyes with hands that were already wet and looks around.

“Where are we?” he asks when he has a breath. It looks like they’re in a cave of some kind. No, they _are_ in a cave of some kind. He turns to Lucy, confused. Lucy grins at him smugly.

“We’ve come down here a couple of times,” Lucy says, wiping her own hair out of her eyes. “Me and Raffaela. We went through all the places we thought Hamilton might try to do something like that. Just in case. You’re not the only person who can be prepared you know.”

Rob grins at her, kissing her forehead as they tread water.

“There’s a little path up this way,” Lucy says. “Come on.”

 

By the time Rob and Lucy find Raffaela, Felipe’s nowhere to be seen. Rob takes Felix from Raffaela so she can hug Lucy. She’s crying, he notices.

“Where’s Felipe?” Rob asks.

“The police came and took Papa away,” Felipinho pipes up before Raffaela can say anything.

“What?” Rob turns to Raffaela, holding Felix closer.

“I… They took the kids in the car,” Raffaela tries to explain through the tears. “We went after them. Felipe ran a red light and there was a police car… When we caught up with the kids, the police caught up with us and recognised him…”

“What?”

“Rob, calm down,” Lucy says, pulling her husband around to face her. “It’s going to be ok.”

“How?” Rob asks. “How is it going to be ok?”

“We will make it be ok,” Lucy says soothingly.


	29. Starting Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to everybody who has been reading this. You really do have no idea how much this means to me. I really hoped you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry I'm not too good at endings but here you are. :) Happy New Year.

_A few weeks later._

Felipe grins when he spots Felipinho racing through the visiting room towards him. He catches his son, laughing too, and spots Raffaela making her way slower through the room, catching the eyes of the other prisoners in the visiting room. She smiles too, but it’s clear her husband’s smile isn’t genuine.

“Not long now,” he says, giving Felipinho back to Raffaela as they both sit down.

There’s only a few weeks left before the plead hearing. It feels like they’ve been waiting forever for the day.

“Lucy thinks Rob still might want to do something,” Raffaela says.

Felipe sighs and looks down at the floor. Rob can’t come to visit him, of course. Even saying his name made Felipe feel a little uneasy.

“Do not let him do something stupid,” Felipe says. “Do not want him in here too.”

“We’ve been trying to convince him but he won’t listen,” Raffaela says.

Felipe can imagine. Once Rob’s gotten something in his head, there’s no way of changing his mind.

“Lucy is looking at it with him,” she says. “Making sure he’s being safe.”

“He cannot do something,” Felipe says. “You cannot let him.”

“We are making sure he’s safe,” Raffaela says. “It’s all we can do.”

“How are you? How is everybody?” Felipe asks, trying to move things away from Rob.

Raffaela smiles weakly. “Pretty good. Lucy and I have the boys again. They seem to have recovered quite well, haven’t you little man?”

Felipinho grins and starts babbling about playing football with Frankie, and it’s clear he’s fine.

“We cope,” Raffaela says. “We always do.”

_Another few weeks later_

Felipe’s in the back of a van travelling towards the court. There’s only the driver and one guard in the van beside him. Obviously they’re not expecting anything to happen.

Felipe still doesn’t know what Rob’s planning. There’s still the faintest bit of hope that he’s given up. There’s nothing Felipe can which Rob can do without putting himself in any danger.

“What did you do then?” the guard beside him asks.

The conversation comes from nowhere and Felipe’s pretty sure it isn’t supposed to exist, but he’s got enough on his mind as it is without worrying about conspiracy theories about talking guards.

“Did not do anything,” Felipe says. There’s no way he’s going to be found not guilty, he knows, but that still hasn’t made him change what he’ll plead.

The guard snorts. “That’s what they all say.”

The van comes to a sudden stop and they both turn to the front, even though neither of them can see through the metal wall that separates the back of the van from the cab. It’s probably nothing, he knows, but Felipe’s heart is thumping in his throat.

When they don’t carry on driving after a couple of seconds, the guard knocks on the wall, annoyed.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a car in the road,” the driver calls back, uncertainly.

Felipe doesn’t raise his head again. He’s done something. Rob’s done something. The guard sighs, clearly annoyed.

“Then go around it,” he says.

“I can’t. There are… there are little kids sat there.”

Felipe frowns, listening to the door of the cab slam shut as the driver gets out. Kids?

The guard huffs again. After a few minutes of sitting in silence, he goes to see what his colleague is doing.

 

Rob watches the driver get out of the van to come to talk to the boys. Felipinho and Frankie look up at him from where they’re sat in the road, squinting against the sun. Rob ducks to keep himself hidden at the side of the road, but the driver’s attention is taken solely by the boys. It’s not that he _likes_ using the children in this way, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

The boys had been happy to help, and now they’re playing the part of the distraction beautifully.

When the second guard comes out of the back of the van, Rob moves quickly. The heavy duty bolt cutters swing in his hand, hitting the guy first on the back of the legs and then his head. He falls to the floor with only a quiet thud.

There isn’t enough time to check to see if he is alright, and Rob turns to the van. It’s locked, but the keys he finds on the guard open it easily.

“I said for them to tell you not to come,” Felipe says as soon as the door swings open.

“Oh,” Rob says. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of welcome.”

“Is dangerous,” Felipe says. He still gets up and follows Rob out of the van, though, handcuffed behind his back so he doesn’t attack anyone on the transit.

“I’ve missed you,” Rob says, quietly, peering around the edge of the vehicle at the driver and the children.

“I missed you too,” Felipe says, following Rob’s gaze. “You brought the kids?”

“I needed to,” Rob says, ducking back behind the van.

“Guess we have to get to the car,” Felipe says. He doesn’t think Rob’s really thought this through.

Rob swings the bolt cutters gently in his hand.

“Rob, no,” Felipe says, knowing what Rob is about to do.

“Just to get us into the car,” Rob says.

“Get me out of these,” Felipe says, shifting his hands to indicate the handcuffs.

Carefully, Rob cuts the handcuffs across the small chain between them and Felipe pulls his hands out from behind his back. He peers around the van again, just as the driver turns back around.

“You take him out, and I will drive.”

_Some months later…_

Felipe’s still curled up in bed when Rob gets back. He falls onto the bed beside him, laying a newspaper on Felipe’s chest. The Brazilian frowns, sitting up, and takes the paper.

They haven’t had another job since Alonso. The plan is, when things die down, to take Lucy, Raffaela, and the boys and move somewhere far away. They’re just waiting for things to die down. Things haven’t gone exactly as they wanted them to. Both families are being watched by the police again in the hope that Felipe or Rob or both will wander in and they can be arrested. It’ll stop eventually, just like it did last time, but it isn’t soon enough.

Felipe gapes at the paper. “Is this real?”

“I think so,” Rob says. “I’ll have a look online.”

Lewis Hamilton’s been arrested.

Felipe knows there’s only so much somebody can stick their fingers into before they get caught, but he’s always thought Hamilton…

“Looks like it’s true,” Rob says, showing Felipe the computer screen. There are about a dozen reports all saying the same thing. Hamilton’s been caught.

Slowly, things have slowly been cleaned up. Romain came to find Rob after the kidnapping. He’d been trying to stop Jev and Dan, but clearly that didn’t work. There was very little he could do once Jev had locked him in the basement. Rob and Felipe haven’t heard from Jev or Dan. The rational part of his brain tells Rob they only did what he would have expected them to do, but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to listen to that rational part if he ever sees them again. It doesn’t matter now, though. That’s behind them.

“How did they catch him?” Felipe asks. There’s no real explanation in the newspaper.

“Doesn’t say,” Rob says, scrolling through some of the online articles.

There’s a mechanical ping from the computer and a grin spreads across his face.

_Hope I can give you a better payment sooner next time, mate. J._

“I think I know what happened,” he says.

“Do you think…?” Felipe starts, but he stops before he can finish, putting the newspaper to the side.

“Yes, I do think,” Rob says, still grinning. Things are going their way again. If things carry on like this, they might all be together again before the end of the year.

Felipe tuts and rolls his eyes. “Do you think they will put him away?”

Rob puts the laptop down and pulls Felipe onto his lap. “I think they might. And, if they don’t, I don’t think he’s going to come after us again.”

Felipe doesn’t believe him, of course. He’s leant his lesson, and has chosen to not believe Rob blindly again. But there’s no use arguing with him now. He lets Rob kiss him, even giving him a smile.

“Soon, this will all be behind us,” Rob says, grinning down at him. “Then we can back to starting again.”


End file.
